


The Phantom Rogues AU Book 1: The New Ties That Bind

by MaximusTheMad



Series: The Phantom Rogues [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Gen, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 06:49:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18005921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaximusTheMad/pseuds/MaximusTheMad
Summary: What would you do if the life you had mysteriously vanished, as if some cosmic force hit the reset button? What happens when life forces you to take a different path?  That’s the circumstances Ren Amamiya finds himself in, on a train heading to Tokyo and a vague sense of deja vu crossing over his mind.  As he starts his new life at Shujin, he finds himself assailed by visions of names and events he has no recollection of.  While struggling to maintain what’s real and what isn’t, other forces conspire to change the players on the board. Changes large and small abound, removing Ren’s allies as he knows them.  But while some may vanish, others rise in their places.  A boy constantly kept under the bootheels of oppressors all his life, a girl struggling to maintain her place and losing her bond with her best friend, a boy abandoned by his mother and raised by a former Yakuza, a girl that feels invisible and seeks comfort in the shifty, a familiar Navi seeking to help a grieving mother. Not exactly Phantom Thieves, they are...The Phantom Rogues.Book 1:Ren starts his new life at Shujin Academy, and uncovers a conspiracy of abuse perpetuated by the school's Volleyball Coach Suguru Kamoshida.





	1. A New Beginning

_ “It’s high time for me to take back control, the game is mine now. I hope you’re prepared” _ __  
__  
_ “Get out of there!” _ __  
__  
_ “Something’s wrong, you have to run!” _ __  
__  
_ “This can’t be real, right?” _ __  
__  
_ “AAAA-” _ __  
__  
_ “Joker” _ __  
__  
_ “Joker” _ __  
__  
_ “ _ **_JOKER!”_ ** __  
  


* * *

  
  
Ren Amamiya awakened with a start on his train heading for his new temporary home in Tokyo. He wasn’t exactly sure when he had fallen asleep and he hoped that he hadn’t missed his stop. He looked out the window of the train and watched the buildings go by. He had been to Tokyo a few times, but it always impressed him. So many buildings and skyscrapers, such huge communities of people all packed into one space. He just wished that it was under more ideal circumstances. 

 

Ren had replayed the events in his head so many times that it had almost felt like an episode of a TV show he had memorized. Threatened with juvenile hall, kicked out of school, put on probation and all because he had tried to help someone in a rough situation. What could he have done though? Stood there and watched that drunk guy assault that woman?

 

And yet as his stop began approaching faster and faster, Ren couldn't help but wonder if maybe he should've just stayed out of what happened. His entire life had been torn apart, even the woman he thought he had helped had gone against him. Now look at him, about to live with friend of a family friend, going to some last chance school. How could life go so wrong from one decision?

* * *

 

He felt the train coming to a stop in Shibuya and he got off and checked his phone to make sure he had the right transfer.   
  
“Hey did you hear, there was another psychotic breakdown the other day right? Are the trains even safe anymore?” Ren heard someone say.  
  
_“Psychotic Breakdowns huh? Bit of danger all over the place nowadays._ ”   
  
Ren walked up to the subway map and ran through the route he had been told to go down.  
  
“Shibuya Station to Denentoshi Line..? Where do I go from here? Apparently I walk out here and go to this part of the station.” Ren said out loud, walking towards the stairs leading out  
  
_“All this hubub? No-trespassing tape? Is this place more dangerous than I thought?”_ Ren thought as he passed by tons of police officers swarmed all over the transit line.  
  
  
He walked out into Shibuya and was amazed at the huge crowds of people all over the place. Coming from a smaller town like he did, he was completely unprepared. He didn’t have time to take it in too much though, he had a train to catch. As he flipped through his phone, he felt someone bump into him and nearly send him spilling over.   
  
“Geez, bumped into by someone and not even getting an apology, big city people are rude.” Ren said as he clutched at his head. “Ugh...feeling a bit...sluggish. Something...doesn’t feel...right.”  
  
The world seemed to be spinning around, and Ren began feeling dizzier and dizzier.  
  
“Maybe I should...find a place to sit down.” Ren said looking at his phone and noticing an icon he had never seen before appear on it. “The hell? Did that bump make me press something weird?”  
  
The app seemed to take over Ren’s whole phone before he could do anything, and despite his efforts of trying to exit it his phone had stopped taking his inputs. As Ren looked around, it was almost as if time itself was standing still, as everybody around him seemed to stop moving.  
  
“Is this some kind of flash mob or something?” Ren said as he looked around and began waving his hand in people’s faces only to find no reaction. “What is going on here?”

 

Off in the distance however, he saw a mass of blue flames appear in the center of the square. Ren watched as the mass began twisting and turning into a shape, like...a man with wings.  There was something off, yet familiar about the sight before. The flames began to part and Ren noticing a form appearing within, a form that looked almost like..himself but wearing some kind of weird mask. The throbbing in his head began to grow stronger and stronger, to the point where he felt himself collapse to the ground and clutching his head even more. Ren felt his mouth open and felt himself utter a wordless and soundless scream. The pain in his head began growing more and more until he almost couldn’t take it anymore. And then...all of a sudden...it stopped.   
  
“Hey? Are you alright kid?” Ren heard a voice above him say. He looked up and saw a black haired man in a tan jacket and red sunglasses.   
  
“H...huh?” Ren said as he blinked and let his sight come back to him.   
  
“First time in Tokyo huh? It can be a bit overwhelming.” The man replied while holding out his hand.   
  
Ren took the hand and pulled himself up.   
  
“So are you alright? Should I call somebody?” the man said, looking at Ren with a bit of concern.   
  
“Huh? Oh no, no I’m fine. Just a bit woozy.” Ren replied, waving his hand. “Though could you tell me where I can find the Denentoshi Line?”   
  
“Not a problem, just head that way and down the stairs and you should be fine.” The man pointed in the direction.   
  
“Thanks umm…” Ren was about to say before he realized he didn’t know the man’s name.   
  
“Call me Masataka young man.” the man replied with a bit of a laugh.   
  
“Well...um..thank you Masataka-san.” Ren said as he ran off towards the stairs.   
  
“Oh by the way kid!” Masataka called after Ren, “Try to keep your head on straight, this place can get kind of chaotic.”   
  
“Thanks again Masataka-san.” Ren called back, and he ran to catch his train.  
  


* * *

  
  
After finding his way onto the subway Ren quickly deleted the weird application. Eventually he got off at the stop for Yongen-jaya and found his way to the front door of LeBlanc Cafe.    
  
“So...this is the place I’m gonna be staying for the next year huh?” Ren said, as he pulled his backpack over his shoulder.  He didn’t know exactly what this Sojiro Sakura was going to be like, his parents hadn’t given him any information about him besides the fact he was going to allow Ren to stay with him. Ren braced himself and walked inside. Looking around he saw it was a nice enough place, nicely designed if a bit...quiet for 5:45 in the afternoon. The only person he saw around was a guy sitting in one of the booths reading a newspaper and another person behind the counter doing what seemed like a crossword. He heard the television news playing in the background talking about a train crash which had been followed up by a bus crash not soon afterwards.   
  
_ “That explains the police officers I suppose _ .” Ren said in his mind.   
  
“Payment’s on the table Sakura-san.” Ren heard the man in the booth say before he got up and left.   
  
“Geez four hours for just a single cup…” he heard the man grouse behind the counter, “Let’s see five-vertical is the name of a shellfish used for farming pearls…”   
  
“Umm...oysters.” Ren spoke up, getting the man’s attention.   
  
“Hmm, that’s right.” the man wrote into his crossword before turning to face Ren. Ren heard the man let out a sigh and continue, “Oh right, they did say that was today.”   
  
He put the paper on the counter and began talking once more, “I was wondering what kind of unruly kid was going to show up. What’s your name, I remember it was Ren something…”   
  
“R...Ren Amamiya sir.” Ren replied hesistantly.   
  
“Amamiya right. I’m Sojiro Sakura, I’m assuming you were informed about the arrangement here.”   
  
“My parents said they knew you and that you offered to let me stay here during my…” Ren didn’t finish the sentence and left it hanging in the air.   
  
“Well I don’t know your parents exactly, it’s more your parents are friends with a customer of mine and...well it’s not like it really matters.” Sojiro replied. “Follow me.”   
  
Sojiro led Ren up to a room in the attic. He saw his boxes packed into the corner, the rest of the room was on the large side, if a little messy.   
  
“I’ll at least give you some sheets for your bed. It’s on you to clean the rest up.” Sojiro said. “I’ll be leaving after I lock up each day. You’ll be alone at night, but don’t do anything stupid. I’ll throw you out if you cause any trouble, understand?”   
  
“Yes sir.” Ren replied simply.   
  
“Your parents gave me the gist of your situation.” Sojiro said, as he pulled out a cigarette, “You protected some woman from a man forcing himself on her, he got injured, then sued you. Is that right? Well...that’s what you get for sticking your nose in adult matters.”   
  
Ren had to bite back a retort, he wanted to yell but it wouldn’t do well to start off on the wrong foot with the person he was staying with.   
  
“But listen to me rambling. Look, just behave yourself for a year. Nothing happens, your probation will be lifted. Cause any problems, and you’ll be sent straight to juvenile hall. Are we clear?” Sojiro said.   
  
“Crystal.” Ren replied keeping his reply short and to the point.   
  
“Good. Now get to cleaning.” Sojiro said, “And get to bed early, I’ll be driving you to Shujin tomorrow.”   
  
Off of Ren’s confused look, Sojiro let out an aggravated sigh and said, “Your school? Shujin Academy?”   
  
“Right, of course.” Ren replied.   
  
Sojiro walked back downstairs and Ren got started putting the room in order. He dusted the cobwebs away, he mopped the floors, he unpacked his things and put the on the shelf, and finally setup his bed   
  
Time seemed to pass by quickly as when Ren looked outside he saw it was already dark out.   
  
“What the heck?” he heard a voice coming the stairs say, “I heard you making all sorts of noise up here but I didn’t think you were cleaning.”   
  
Sojiro looked around and gave a bit of a smile, “The place doesn’t look too bad, I’m impressed. Though I suppose it’s only natural you’d want to keep your room clean.  Why don’t you head to bed for the night? You don’t anything better to be doing, right? I’m gonna close up shop and get out of here myself.”   
  
“Sure thing.” Ren replied simply. He watched Sojiro leave so he changed into his sleepwear and laid down on the bed.   
  
  
“Don’t cause any trouble huh?” Ren said out loud to himself.   
  
  
_ Help me! _   
  
__ Damn brat, I’ll sue!  
__  
__  
“I thought I was doing the right thing. But….could I have been wrong? Looking back, and with where I am now, maybe I was.”   
  
Ren felt his eyes dip down and he shook his head and pulled out his phone.   
  
“Huh?”   
  
The app that had appeared on his phone earlier had somehow found its way back. No matter how hard Ren tried to move the icon it just remained right where it had been, covering his phone screen.   
  
“What’s with this thing? And what’s with its creepy design?” Ren said, staring at the icon and feeling his eyelids start to droop. “It almost...looks like an….eye.”   
  
Ren felt his eyes close completely and he felt himself relax and fall asleep before he could ask any further questions.   
  


* * *

  
  
As Ren felt a sense on consciousness coming to him, he felt something was way more off than before. He sat up with a start and noticed he was in what seemed like a prison cell. He tried to get up, before noticing his arms were bound and there was a substantial weight around his leg.   
  
“Chains?” Ren said, as he pulled at them. He got up and ran towards the cell door and began pounding on it as best he could. “Hello? Is there somebody out there?”   
  
Ren was beginning to freak out a bit, wherever he was he didn’t like it. “Let me out of here!”   
  
“So...you’ve come to, inmate?” Ren heard a female voice in the darkness say. Ren could make out a few shapes in the darkness, two were right in front of him, two were further away, and one was at the center. A light was switched on and Ren saw two girls in what looked like prison guard uniforms standing in front of him.   
  
The two girls stood aside and Ren saw a man sitting at what looked like some sort of desk. The man looked ancient, with wide blood-shot eyes, pointed ears, white hair and a rather large nose. Behind him was a blindfolded man chained to a piano as well as a woman with rather wild hair standing in front of a microphone.    
  
“Trickster...Welcome to my Velvet Room.”   
_  
_

* * *

__  
  
  
  


  
  



	2. Preparing For The First Day

“Trickster...Welcome to my Velvet Room.”   
  
“What the hell is going on?” Ren said. Ren jumped back when one of the wardens smacked the door.   
  
“You’re in the presence of our master inmate, now stand up straight!” the one with bunned hair said.   
  
“I am so delighted to make your acquaintance.” Ren heard the man behind the desk say.   
  
“Who...who are you? What is this place?” Ren replied. “Am I...am I having a nightmare or something?”   
  
“The you in reality is currently fast asleep yes,” The braid-haired warden replied. “While this is a dream, you’ve been brought here for a very important reason.”   
  
  
“That’ll be enough Justine, I can speak to our guest myself.” The man said. He got up from behind the desk and walked right up to Ren’s cell door. “My name is Igor, I am the master of this place. And this place…” Igor waved his hand around the room, “is a place that exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those bound by a “contract” may enter.”   
  
The man gave off an intimidating aura and Ren struggled to maintain eye contact with him.   
  
“I’ve summoned you here so that we may speak of important matters. Ones that involve your life.”   
  
“My life? What do you mean?” Ren questioned.   
  
Igor looked about the room, walking around and letting his fingers run along the bars of the cell.    
  
“This is quite a surprise, Ren Amamiya. The Velvet Room’s state often reflects the state of a user’s heart. To think it would appear as a prison.”   
  
Igor let out a sigh, “You truly are a prisoner of fate itself. In the near future, there is no mistake that ruin awaits someone such as you.”   
  
“Ruin? What the hell are you talking about?” Ren answered with a bit more worry in his voice.   
  
“You must be…”rehabilitated” towards freedom. You must learn, and change the distortion that pollutes your world. That is the only means to avoid the coming calamity.” Igor said somberly.   
  
“Rehab...W-wait! I don’t understand!”   
  
“How long we have to help you, I do not know. But it can wait, since it seems the night is waning.You will interact with us more soon, you may even have a chance to speak to Nameless and Belladonna. For now though, it is almost time….” Igor answered cryptically.   
  
“ANSWER ME DAMMIT!” Ren yelled out, growing more and more frustrated.   
  
“Shhh...just be a good boy and go back to sleep. We will meet again, eventually…”   
  
Ren heard what sounded like an alarm bell going off and he saw the lights around him being shut down.   
  
“WAIT!” Ren called out, before the darkness overtook him.   


* * *

  
  
Ren awoke with a start, hyperventilating like mad. He looked around and saw the sunlight peeking through the window.   
  
“What was that? Was it...just a dream?” Ren said out loud, before pulling out his phone and switching off the alarm. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, even that app he thought he had seen last night had disappeared. He sat up and pulled his Shujin uniform out of his bag and got dressed.    
  
“But it felt so real, I...I can still feel the chains on my wrist.” Ren said while rubbing them and looking for any marks   
  
Eventually he started shaking his head. “I must be losing it. Maybe I should stop by a drug store after school and pick-up some headache meds too.”   
  
He walked downstairs and saw Sojiro in what looked like a white sports coat over the pink shirt he wore yesterday along with a white hat.   
  
“Good morning.” Ren said, getting the man’s attention.   
  
“Ah, seems like you still got the mind to get up at a reasonable hour. Have some breakfast, I'll be taking you to school to introduce you to the staff and finish the last details of your transfer.” said Sojiro, pointing at the plate on the counter.   
  
“Y-you don’t have to do that…” Ren started to say, but Sojiro waived his objections off.   
  
“It’s fine, I gotta make sure you don’t miss your first day of school. With how public transit has been going nuts, I don’t want to get an earful from your parents that you didn’t get there safely. Not to mention the train is expensive and the route transitions are a pain in the ass. Of course I’m only going to do this today, I’ve got a business to run and I can’t afford to always take you.” Sojiro continued.   
  
Ren sat down and ate the plate of curry Sojiro had made for him. Ren found it actually tasted quite good, he was surprised to taste this much flavor in a simple dish.   
  
“Geez I don’t normally allow men in my passenger seat, but I don’t have much choice.” said Sojiro under his breath, “Now come on, let’s get going.”   
  
“Wait, let me clean up the dish first. I don’t want to-” Ren started to say.   
  
“It’s fine, I’ll handle it when we get back. Just leave it in the sink.” said Sojiro.   
  
“Well, um alright. Thanks for the meal, it was quite delicious.” Ren said, putting the plate in the sink as requested.   
  
“...At least the kid still has some manners.” Sojiro said under his breath as he walked out the door to his car, with Ren following after him.   
  


* * *

  
  
The traffic had been rather light that morning so Ren and Sojiro had managed to make great time and found themselves at the front steps of Shujin Academy in no time at all.   
  
“Do me a favor and behave yourself alright? Not like I care what happens to you, just don’t cause me any trouble.”   
  
Ren noticed Sojiro seemed to enjoy this, treating him like an unwanted nuisance. If the man didn’t want him around, he should just come out and say so. Ren was annoyed, but kept it to himself.   
  
“Of course, I promise.” Ren said simply, not letting any emotion infiltrate his tone. He followed Sojiro up the steps. It was Sunday so there wasn’t any students around. Ren thanked the gods for that, he was dealing with enough hassle as it was. The two continued their way to the principal’s office, where Sojiro filled out some forms while Ren stood there and waited.   
  
He noticed a rather sleepy looking woman standing to the side of the principal, though he wasn’t sure exactly who she was. Sojiro finished signing off on the forms and the principal looked them over. Satisfied, the rather rotund man looked towards Ren with a glare.   
  
“To reiterate, just so we’re clear, you will be immediately expelled if you cause any problems.

You might have done a variety of things in hiding in your hometown, but you will behave yourself here. If you are thrown out from our school, there will be no place for you to go. Any questions Amamiya-san?”   
  
“Um..sir, I did have one question.”   
  
“Hmm? Well speak up then?” the principal said. Sojiro shot Ren a look but Ren continued.   
  
“This seems like a rather prestigious private school. I’m just curious...why exactly did you accept a transfer for a student on probation?” Ren asked.   
  
The principal seemed surprised at the question, before he coughed and replied, “Well, honestly I hesitated on accepting someone like you, but there were some circumstances on our side.  Not to mention one of the administrators at your former school recommended that you be given a chance. But that’s not important…”   
  
He turned to the tired woman at his left, “This will be your homeroom teacher for the duration of your year here.”   
  
The tired woman looked at him, “I’m Sadayo Kawakami.”   
  
“Nice to meet you Sensei.” Ren replied simply.   
  
The woman barely acknowledged him, instead handing him a card, “This is your student ID, it’ll allow you to travel the subway route to this school. Be sure to read the school rules. Any violations will send you straight to the guidance office. And, if by chance you cause any problems, I won’t be able to protect you at all.”   
  
Kawakami turned towards the principal, “This IS your promise correct, right Principal Kobayakawa?”   
  
“Yes, yes Kawakami, Amamiya will be responsible for all his actions on his own.” the Principal replied.   
  
“But really though, why me…? There should’ve been better candidates.” Kawakami said in an annoyed tone.   
  
“It was a sudden transfer and…” the principal started to say before being interrupted by Ren saying “Your class was the only one that had an opening.”   
  
The three adults looked at him in surprise, the principal saying after a while, “Umm...yes. Exactly that.”   
  
Ren was surprised a bit himself that he knew that, before waving it off, “Sorry, I was just thinking out loud and that seemed like the most logical case.”   
  
Before the conversation could continue, Sojiro interrupted, “If you’re gone explaining things, mind if we get going? I got a store to get back to.”   
  
“Of course. Sakura-san, do keep an eye on him. Don’t let him cause any trouble outside.” the principal reiterated.   
  
“I’ll be sure to have a serious talk about the situation he’s in.” Sojiro stated, with Ren resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He knew the situation he was in, he didn’t need to be constantly reminded of it.   
  
Kawakami let out a sigh and started saying “Come to the-”   
  
Ren interrupted once again though, as if by reflex, “Faculty office when I arrive tomorrow. You’ll show me to the classroom.”   
  
Ren had been staring at his student ID the entire time so the words coming out his mouth came as yet another surprise for everyone involved.   
  
“Oh, uh, nothing. I just figured that was the protocol.” Ren tried to explain.   
  
“Right…” Kawakami remained unconvinced.   
  
Ren and Sojiro left the room, with Kawakami giving Ren a suspicious look as he walked out.   
  


* * *

  
“You seemed more prepared than I thought.” Sojiro said as the two walked out to the car.   
  
“Hmm?” Ren questioned.   
  
“You finished their sentences, almost like…you know what never mind.” Sojiro said, “They seemed like they’re treating you like some kind of nuisance...I guess that’s-”   
  
“What it means to have a criminal record.” Ren said simply, without even thinking.   
  
“That’s right…” Sojiro replied suspiciously. Ren seemed like he was almost reading people’s minds he responded so quickly. “B-by the way...if you get expelled now, I won’t hesitate to kick you out. Got it?”   
  
“I think you made that perfectly clear last night Sakura-san.” Ren replied, “I’ll be on my best behavior, you have my promise.”   
  
“Hmmph.” Sojiro replied, not sure whether he believed the kid. “Come on, let’s just get home.”   
  
The entire ride home Ren listened to Sojiro once again go on a tirade about how this was his last chance and how troublesome Ren was, eventually Ren began to tune him out.  Everything today just felt...familiar in a way he couldn’t quite place.   
  
Eventually they found their way back to LeBlanc and the two walked in. Traffic had been a nightmare, turns out there had been another subway accident.   
  
“Geez, over 80 people injured. Gruesome stuff.” Sojiro said, looking over the news on his phone as the two walked up to Ren’s room. “Here, I’ve got something for you.”   
  
He handed Ren a notebook.   
  
“It’s a diary, I’m required by the state to report on what you do so you better keep up on it. You may be under probation, but there’s no special limitations on what you do in particular. Besides not breaking the law of course.  I do expect you to maintain this book with your daily activities however.”   
  
“I’ll make sure to do that,” Ren said, not even batting an eyelash.   
  
The two heard a phone go off and Sojiro pulled it out and began talking to someone, “Hmm...yes...I’ll be back shortly….I’m about to leave right now…”   
  
He ended the call and turned back to Ren, “Well I’m going to get going. I’ll lock the place up, so...do whatever you want for the rest of the night. But don’t mess up my store. If something goes missing, I’ll hand you right over to the cops.”   
  
Sojiro left and Ren allowed himself to roll his eyes at that point. He had heard the same threat constantly for the past day and a half, and honestly it was getting old.   
  
“Guess I better do what I’m told for now,” Ren said as he filled out the page for the day.   
  
  
He decided to change into his night clothes and get ready for bed. He had an early day tomorrow after all, best be prepared for any train delays with the accident that happened. He laid down on the bed. He looked over the train schedule and tried to plan out the best route.   
  
“Yongen-jaya, Aoyama-Itchome...Transfer...seems like I just need to go to Shibuya and then transfer there.” Ren listed off, before he noticed something strange.   
  
“What the? The app is back? I thought I deleted it.” Ren continued, deleting it once again. “Maybe I should reboot my phone, just to be on the safe side.”   
  
Ren felt his eyes droop once again, so he set his alarm and eventually found himself drifting off to sleep.   
  
  


* * *

  
  
No dreams came to him that night, which was rather good as Ren needed the sleep. He had woken up, eaten breakfast, found his way to the train, the train transfer had gone off without a hitch which was a bit of a surprise considering everything that happened the previous few days.  Apparently the accidents over the past couple days had made people feel skeevy about public transit, so it was surprisingly quiet in the train.   
  
Getting off at his stop, Ren slumped his messenger bag over his shoulder and walked out of the station. It was raining, which sucked because Ren hadn’t pack his umbrella. He had been so focused on making sure he had the train schedule down that he hadn’t bothered to check up on the weather report.   
  
He looked up and saw a few students wearing similar uniforms to him heading a certain direction so he figured it was the correct way to school. “ _ But what to do about this rain? Should I just run there?”  _ Ren thought to himself.   
  
He ran through a few more possible routes on his phone, hoping to find one that at the very least had some coverage from the rain. As he did so, he noticed another student walking over to the same storefront where he was hiding from the rain. A girl wearing a Shujin uniform but with a white hoodie under it. The girl let out a sigh, and pulled the hood down, revealing stunning beautiful blonde hair tied up into two bushy pigtails. The sight actually gave Ren a slight bit of pause as he let out a bit of a gasp that hopefully she hadn’t heard. The girl turned towards Ren, and for a moment Ren was fearful that she would be creeped out by him staring at her. Yet oddly enough, she didn’t seem to mind and actually gave him a small smile and a giggle at his looks. Eventually the two turned their sights forward and stood there in silence. Still, it was nice to know that there were some serious beauties like her at Shujin. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.   
  
Ren heard a car horn and looked up to see a car right in front of the two of them. One of the windows rolled down and a man in what looked like a track suit spoke up.   
  
“Good morning. You want me to give you a ride to school? You’re gonna be late.”   
  
He seemed to be talking to the girl from what Ren could tell, as the girl’s face immediately darkened before plastering a smile on her face and replying “Um, sure. Thank you.”   
  
The man then turned his attention to Ren and continued, “Do you need a lift too? Plenty of room.”   
  
Ren was tempted to take the man up on his offer, after all getting to school late on his first day wouldn’t be the best showing. Not to mention he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go through the rest of the day in wet clothes.  However, something was...off about the man’s expression. Something that triggered some kind of alarm bell in Ren’s head. Within his mind, there was almost a voice screaming at him that this person wasn’t to be trusted. Ren was even half tempted to yank the blonde girl from his car, but held himself back from that particular impulse.   
  
“Umm...no thanks, I’ll be fine.” Ren replied.   
  
“You sure?” Ren heard the man say, but his tone indicated that he was glad Ren had rejected his offer. “Alright then, just don’t be late, alright?”   
  
“Sure thing,” Ren replied again, this time with a bit of an awkward laugh. He watched the man roll up his windows and couldn’t help but notice that the girl looked...sad. Something about that expression gave Ren that same familiar feeling he had felt the previous day, the one he hadn’t been able to place. Ren let out a sigh and looked around, checking his phone again to see that time was wearing thin. He needed to get moving if he wanted to get to school at a decent time.   
  
Something about this situation though, there was a bit of familiarity but something felt...missing. He looked off to his right, almost as if he was expecting something but...no. Nothing seemed to appear, and that made Ren’s head ache for some reason.    
  
He tried to ignore it and push onwards towards the school, following the trails of other students while holding his bag over his head and trying his best to keep the rain away. He ducked into a nearby alleyway he had seen on his map and followed the trail until eventually, there he was. At the front steps of Shujin Academy, his new school for the next year. Even though he had been there yesterday, it was still quite the sight to see. Ren pulled out his phone once again to check the time.  
  
  
“Few minutes to spare, guess I should head to the faculty office like Sensei told me to yesterday. Can’t believe I’m actually early for my first day.”   
  


* * *

  
  
  



	3. New School Year, New Problems

Ren felt a sense of wrongness in the air as he walked through the halls of the school on his way up to the faculty office. For one thing most kids would avoid eye contact with him and would often quiet down whenever he would get near. At first Ren had put it down to him being the new kid, and after all it was a pretty good school. He probably just looked a bit out of place. At least that had been what Ren had thought was the problem, but then people began whispering.    
  
Something about him looking normal and something about...his criminal record? How the hell could they know about that? The administration had promised his parents that his record would be kept under wraps to ensure his transfer here would go off without a hitch. Ren couldn’t make a big deal about it, it would only lend further credence to whatever they were saying, but what they were saying was making him feel very unsettled. Apparently the fact that he had a criminal record was well known right now by a large amount of the students, but what exactly it was for was kept on the down low.   
  
“ _ Great, first day here and I’m already going to be a pariah _ .” Ren thought with a bit of disdain. “ _ Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse. _ ”   
  
He shouldered his bag and walked into the faculty office and saw a bunch of teachers running around.    
  
“Sigh, better to get this over with I suppose.” Ren said with a sense of dread.   
  
He walked over to Kawakami’s desk in the faculty office and let out a cough to get her attention.   
  
“Hmm...oh, I wasn’t expecting you to show up here.” Sadayo said in a bored tone, before catching herself, “Er, sorry I didn’t mean to say that. That was rather rude of me.”   
  
“It’s alright.” Ren replied, in a rather passive tone.   
  
Kawakami noticed his grim expression, “So...I’m guessing you’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you? If it helps any...I wasn’t the one who started them. I don’t know how your record got leaked, but there’s-”   
  
“Nothing you can do, it’s not your problem. I understand.” Ren finished it up for her.   
  
Seeing him like this actually made Sadayo feel a bit bad about some of the things she said yesterday.   
  
__  
“I keep wishing that he’d just end up not coming to school. ”   
  
  
There really wasn’t anything she could do for him, all she could do was hope things worked out for him. He seemed like a decent enough kid, all things considered.  
  
“Well, if you’re ready then I’ll have you introduce yourself to the class. It’ll be a short day today because of the subway accident, we’re only going to 5th period.”   
  
“Good to know I guess,” Ren said, not really taking it in.   
  
“By the way, when you introduce yourself...just be serious about it even if you’re lying to the class, okay? Do not say-”   
  
“Anything unnecessary?” Ren finished, “Yeah, it feels like I’ve been getting the same advice and threats lately. It’s almost like it’s blending together.”   
  
Ren pulled a packet of headache pills he had picked up the other day out of his bag and took two of them.  Off the suspicious look he got from Kawakami he replied dryly, “They’re headache pills, my parents sent an email to the principal about my constant migraines. If you have a problem with it, you can confirm it with him.”   
  
Sadayo wasn’t really satisfied with the explanation, but ultimately she decided to follow up with it later. She didn’t want to be too late for class after all.   
  
“Very well, let’s get going Amamiya.” Sadayo said dryly.   
  
“Lead the way Sensei.” Ren replied.   
  
  


* * *

  
  
As Kawakami led him to the classroom, Ren couldn’t help but hear more whispers about him.    
  
_ “Is that him?” _   
  
_ “Don’t talk too loud, he might go all psycho on us _ .”   
  
_ “God, why do we have to have someone like him in our school?” _   
  
It irked Ren a fair amount, and all he wanted to do was yell out and say that none of them understood. That they would’ve done the same thing if they had been placed in the same circumstances that had led him here. But...he just couldn’t find the will to. What’s the point if he kicked and screamed, it’s not like they’d see things his way.   
  
Eventually he and Kawakami found their way to the classroom and Kawakami led him in. Ren looked around at the rest of the students in the class. For the most part it seemed like a rather normal group, everyone wearing normal uniforms aside from one blue haired boy with a bandage on his face and arms in the center of the room who wasn’t wearing the normal blazer with the uniforms.  Also much to his surprise, he saw the blonde girl he had seen earlier that day sitting in the corner. Everyone in the room was chatting, and much to Ren’s chagrin it involved a lot of talk about him. Saying things that he looked normal for a delinquent, or that he’d slug them if they looked him in the eye.   
  
_ “Don’t tempt me _ .” Ren thought darkly, before shaking it off. He wasn’t like that, he was just a normal student. Just because he had a record that didn’t mean he had to act a certain way, he’d just keep his head down and succeed just like he had back at his old school. Granted that hadn’t earned him a lot of respect from his peers before, but there wasn’t much else Ren could do besides that.   
  
“Alright alright settle down.” Ren heard Kawakami call out. Eventually the students quieted and she continued “...Well, everyone I’d like to introduce you to our new transfer student.”   
  
She turned to Ren and said, “All right, please say something to the class.”   
  
Ren took a deep breath before replying, “Hello. My name is Ren Amamiya, it’s nice to make your acquaintance. I hope I’ll be able to get along with all of you.”   
  
He bowed and then stood up straight. From the looks he saw on the class’s faces, they clearly weren’t expecting him to be like this.  He heard a few more murmurs going throughout the room.   
  
“ _ That’s the new transfer kid? He seems so...quiet.” _ __   
__   
_ “He seems quiet, but I bet when he loses it…” _ __   
__   
_ “I dunno, he doesn’t seem like the psycho we were lead to believe...” _ __   
__   
_ “Well he was arrested for assault, right…?” _   
  
“...Uhh, so..” Kawakami tried to get the class’s attention again. “Your seat will be...right over there.” She pointed at a nearby empty desk near the window behind the blonde girl. “Sorry, but can the people nearby please share your textbooks with him for today?”   
  
She sent an apologetic look Ren’s way, but he waved it away.Instead he walked over to the desk with his hands in his pockets. Some of the students looked at him with fear, others with disgust, but the blue haired kid seemed to be looking at him with….an emotion Ren couldn’t quite place. It almost looked like...some kind of guilt. Ren shook it off and tried his best to ignore it.    
  
As he walked by the desk with the blonde student, he saw her turn to him and smile.   
  
“Sorry about earlier, if I had known we were going to be in the same class I would’ve insisted you join me so you’d get here without getting too wet.” she said.   
  
“Huh? Oh..uh...don’t worry about it. The rain wasn’t too bad.” Ren replied with a smile.   
  
“Well, now that I know your name. I’m Ann, Ann Takamaki. Nice to meet you.”   
  
“Likewise.” Ren answered.   
  
He took the desk behind her and continued smiling. At least there was one person in the class that wasn’t afraid of him or hated his guts. Small victories he supposed.   
  
However, he couldn’t help but notice some of the chatter that started amongst the girls.   
  
“ _ Did you see that? Do those two know each other?” _   
  
_ “Does that mean he hit on her before transferring here? _ ”   
  
Ren couldn’t help but roll his eyes, the rumor mill of this school was insane with some of the logic leaps they took.  One statement caught his ear more than any other though.   
  
“ _ Do you think she’s cheating on Coach Kamoshida with him? _ ”   
  
Coach Kamoshida? The name was familiar to Ren in some way he couldn’t quite place.   
  
_ “Was that the man she drove to school with today? That’s the only explanation I can think of. _ ” Ren thought.  _ “Are they in some sort of relationship? But...she seemed so uncomfortable around him this morning…” _ __   
__   
Ren filed away those thoughts for later.   
  
_ “Then again this is Takamaki-san, we’re talking about.” _ __   
__   
_ “For real. That side of the room is totally awful. _ ”   
  
Apparently the fact that the two people talking were desk neighbors with Ren as when he turned to look at the two girls they immediately shut up and returned their gaze to the front of the room.   
  
“ __ So...I guess I’m not the only one with a bad reputation thanks to the rumor mill. Not much I can do to help but...I feel bad.”  Ren continued thinking.    
  
“Just a reminder, Sports Days will be this week barring any cancellations due to rain. Everyone’s just changed classes, so make sure you use that time to get to know each other. Well then let’s get class started. Class Representative, if you would...” Kawakami said.   
  
Ren heard the blue haired kid sigh and stand up, “Everyone, please rise…”    
  


* * *

Time seemed to pass by rather quick. Ren tried his best to keep up with the lecture, but due to his lack of a textbook it was rather difficult.  Ann was the only one willing to share, considering the other kids were too scared to approach him. Eventually the bell rang and it was finally time for lunch break. Ren had some pocket money so at the very least he’d be able to buy some bread at the school store he had seen when he had walked in.   
  
“Hey new kid,” he heard Ann say as he stood up.   
  
“Uh yeah?” Ren said after what he heard her say register.   
  
“How’s your first day been so far at our illustrious school?” Ren could hear the almost sarcastic tone she put on the illustrious part, not that he blamed her given the things he had heard people say.   
  
“Can’t complain, aside from everybody not looking at me in the eye for fear I’ll attack them things have been rather...normal I guess for lack of a better term.” Ren answered a bit jokingly.   
  
“Well, I’ll see you back here after lunch I suppose.” Ann said, picking up her stuff and heading to the door.   
  
“Wait.” Ren called out, causing Ann to turn back. “T-thank you. For your help I mean. I don’t think I would’ve gotten through this class period without you.”   
  
She smiled back at him, “Anytime, you would’ve probably done the same. You’ve got that lovably dorky look about you, the kind that seems like you enjoy helping people. Kind of like...”   
  
Her expression changed for a moment, before she continued, “Never mind, I’m meeting a friend for lunch. Would you like to come with?”   
  
“Umm...thanks for the offer but I thought I’d spend the break getting used to the school. And I...wouldn’t want to put a damper on any fun you’d have. Thanks for the offer though.” Ren waved as she headed out.   
  
“Maybe this year won’t be so bad.” Ren said out loud as he slumped his bag over his shoulder and headed out.   
  


* * *

  
Immediately after that statement, he walked downstairs and saw a huge crowd in front of the school store and decided that...maybe it was a better idea to figure something else out for lunch. There had to be a convenience store or two nearby, maybe a vending machine. Worse comes to worse he could always go without and grab something on the way home. Something told him that clubs wouldn’t exactly be itching to recruit someone like him, so being part of the going home club seemed to be the most likely option for him.   
  
He continued musing on what exactly he was going to do as he walked out the door, until he saw something that set off a red flag for him around the corner.  It seemed like his class rep was arguing with the man he had seen Takamaki with that morning. The man also seemed to be intimidating the class rep as well, as every time the man even got close the class rep would flinch and cower back. Eventually Ren saw the man make what looked like some rather violent gestures towards the young man, and something in Ren told him he needed to intervene.   
  
_ “Well, that’s what you get for sticking your nose in adult business _ .”   
  
The earlier statement from Sojiro gave Ren pause. What if he intervened and things got worse for him, just like what happened with that lady. What if he was in the wrong, should he just...let this go? Just stand by and ignore it?   
  
_ “You’ve got that lovably dorky look about you, the kind that seems like you enjoy helping people.” _   
  
_ “No. _ ” Ren thought. Consequences or not, Ren knew deep down he had to do the right thing.   
  
“Hey Class Rep!” Ren called out, getting the attention of the two.   
  
“What in the-” the man started to say before Ren interrupted him.   
  
“I thought you said you were going to join me for lunch and then show me around the school.” Ren lied.   
  
“I...I did?” the class rep replied, giving him a confused look.   
  
“Yeah, you remember right?” said Ren. “Sorry about this, but we really need to get going.”   
  
The man seemed annoyed at Ren’s intervention, but bit back any words he was going to say in favor of saying, “Sure...of course...we’ll take later Mishima.”   
  
“S-sure thing coach,” the class rep replied, as Ren pulled him away.   
  
  


* * *

  
Eventually, once they were out of view, the class rep broke Ren’s hold on him as Ren grabbed a snack from the vending machine.   
  
“W-what the hell was that?” he said nervously. “I didn’t agree to anything of the sort.”   
  
“I know, it just looked like you were in a bad situation so I thought I’d help.” Ren replied, munching on the snack.   
  
“I didn’t need your help.” the class rep said in an aggressive tone.   
  
“I’m sure you didn’t, but would you rather I’d have just stood by?” Ren asked.   
  
The class rep didn’t answer, instead buying a drink from the machine and drinking it in silence. Luckily where they were sitting there was an overhang protecting them from the rain. The two sat rather awkwardly for a while until the class rep spoke up again.   
  
“Y-you’re not like what I thought you’d be.”   
  
Ren rolled his eyes and smiled, “Been getting that a lot today.”   
  
The class rep went silent again, and began wringing his hands a bit.    
  
“I mean...when I heard that a delinquent was transferring here, I expected you to…” he left the sentence hanging in the air.   
  
“What? That I’d have neon hair, piercings, tattoos and a serious tan?” Ren joked.   
  
“Pffttt no.” the class rep sputtered. “Just...so far from what I’ve seen, you seem...nicer than I’d thought you be.”   
  
“Yeah...well, don’t believe everything you hear I guess…” Ren said, leaving the sentence in the air for the class rep.   
  
“Um...Yuuki. Yuuki Mishima. I-I’m your class rep, so makes sense you’d need to know my name Amamiya-san.”  the class rep answered.   
  
“Alright, well...nice to meet you Mishima-san.” Ren answered.   
  
“Um...I-I’m sorry about all the rumors that have been following you, you don’t seem to fit them.” Mishima said.   
  
“Yeah well, nothing can be done about it with my record being leaked.” Ren said, causing Mishima to let out a noise that made Ren a bit suspicious but he decided to ignore it. “So...who was that you were talking to by the way?”   
  
“Oh umm...that was just Coach Suguru Kamoshida, he’s the volleyball coach for the school.” Mishima explained, “He was umm...just giving me some pointers for practice today.”   
  
“Seemed like a rather violent way to give pointers.” Ren stated.   
  
“T-that’s just how Coach is sometimes, he...expects a lot out of us.” Mishima said, seeming a little sad, “I’ve been...behind some of the rest lately, and things haven’t been going well.”   
  
“Is that why you’re wearing those bandages?” Ren asked, “Seems like your team’s practices are rather intense to get injuries like that.”   
  
“L-like I said, I’ve been falling behind.” Mishima said almost in a dead tone, not even looking up from his drink. From Mishima’s tone Ren could tell that he wasn’t in a very talkative.   
  
“Well umm...I guess we should be getting back. You’re the class rep right? I don’t want you getting in trouble just by being with me.” said Ren, patting Mishima on the shoulder.   
  
“Uh..” Mishima seemed like he wanted to say something but he shrunk back on himself. “Yeah...we should get back.”   
  
As the two got up and threw away their trash, Mishima spoke up again, “Amamiya….thanks for the help...back there I mean.”   
  
“Not a problem Mishima.” said Ren, and the two began their trek back to the school. Or at least they would have...if not for a sudden migraine attack Ren experienced, causing him to clutch his head.   
  
“Are you alright?” Mishima asked out of concern. “Do you need to go to the nurse?”   
  
“No, I just have a bit of a headache problem. I’m fine.” Ren said, trying to assuage the boy’s concern. Ren couldn’t help but clutch his harder though, as the pain grew a lot stronger.   
  
_ “You plannin’ to rat me out to Kamoshida?” _ __   
__   
Ren heard a voice speaking to him in his head   
  
“ __ He does whatever the hell he wants. Who does he think he is--the king of a castle?”   
  
“King? Castle?” Ren murmured the words, trying to figure out what sort of connection the words had.   
  
“Are you sure you’re alright?” he heard Mishima ask.   
  
“Y-yeah, I’m fine let’s just get back to the school.” Ren said, not knowing what was going on.   
  
Something however seemed to change in the atmosphere around them, and all of a sudden the migraine was replaced by a feeling of lightheadedness. Ren shook it off and followed Mishima back on the path to the school, resolving to see the nurse after they got back. True it was bad form to miss class on his first day, but he figured it would be a good idea to be sure. Ren just didn’t understand what exactly was going on, his migraines seemed to just be getting worse and worse lately. Ren was so preoccupied thinking that he ran into Mishima, who seemed to have stopped stock still.   
  
“Hey Mishima what’s….going...on…” Ren started to ask before seeing the sight before them.   
  
The school...it no longer looked like a school at all.   
  
It almost looked like...a giant castle.   
  


* * *


	4. The Golden Castle

“What...the...hell…” was the only thing Ren could say at the situation that laid before him. Gone was the private school that he had been at just hours before had been replaced by a rather ornate castle. The front gate was replaced by a giant wall, with a drawbridge and moat in front of a gateway with a portcullis. The castle itself loomed in the background, looking like something out of a twisted fairytale, with the darkened skies and fog above it.   
  
  
“How did...we came back the exact same way we came from. How is this here?” Mishima asked, shocked and confused.   
  
“I...I don’t know.” Ren answered. “Is there anything like this near the school at all? Maybe we made a wrong turn or something like that?”   
  
“No” Mishima shot the idea down. “There’s no castle near the school grounds, I’ve never seen anything like this place.”   
  
Ren spotted a nearby sign which read “Shujin Academy”, which paused his thought process.   
  
“There’s a sign for the school right there...but this looks nothing like the building.”   
  
Mishima noticed the sign as well. “W-what should we do?”   
  
“Well...I guess we’ll have to go in and ask what’s going on.” Ren said, walking forward.   
  
“W-wait are you serious? We can’t go in there! Maybe we should call somebody or…” Mishima started before pulling out his phone. “What the? No service?”   
  
Mishima then noticed Ren was already halfway across the drawbridge.   
  
“H-hey wait! Don’t go in there! You don’t know if it’s safe!” he yelled out, following Ren as he walked into the entrance. Mishima ummed and urred about what to do before yelling, “Dammit!” and following after him.   
  


* * *

  
  
The two stood in the entrance hall of the castle, taking in the sights as the building shifted in form.   
  
“Is this some kind of joke or prank?” Ren asked, “Like some sort of presentation by the drama club nobody thought to inform the new kid about?”   
  
“I-I have no idea.” Mishima said, scared but truthful, “But whatever it is, it’s giving me the creeps. We shouldn’t be here, this doesn’t seem safe.”   
  
“Yeah...the atmosphere is very uncomfortable, maybe we should find someone…” Ren said, looking around.   
  
On the wall of the staircase he saw what looked like some kind of portrait of…   
  
“Is that...Kamoshida?” Ren wondered out loud.   
  
Indeed, it looked there was a gaudy portrait of Kamoshida as some kind of knight hanging over the front staircase.   
  
“Don’t remember that being here the last time I came in here.” Ren stated obviously.   
  
“I’ve never seen that either,” Mishima added in a confused tone. “Coach is very important to the school but….not that important.”   
  
The two jumped at the sound of clanking coming from nearby and turned to see what looked like a fully armored knight shambling towards them.   
  
“The hell?” Ren said, walking up to it. “Is that real armor? This seems like pretty far to go for a prank.”   
  
“Umm...I don’t think you should get too close to that.” Mishima said fearfully.   
  
Before Ren could react, the knight let out a cry and slammed Ren’s chest with his shield. Ren let out a cry and was knocked to the ground.   
  
“Amamiya!” Mishima called out, before getting knocked to the ground himself by another knight that showed up behind him.   
  
The two knights pinned Ren and Mishima to the ground, and a few others gathered around them.   
  
“What the hell do you people think you’re doing?” Ren said through gasps, having had the wind knocked out of him. Before he could question further, he felt something slam against his head and he felt darkness overflowing his vision.   
  
The last thing he heard was some sort of distorted voice saying, “Take them away! Lock up the intruders!”   
  
  


* * *

  
  
“H-hey! Wake up!”   
  
Ren had no idea just how much time had passed since he had been knocked out, but he felt some semblance of vision returning. He sat up as best he could, trying to shake off the big blow he had received. Whatever it was had hit him good, as he felt a serious amount of pain in his chest. As he got to grips with himself, Ren finally noticed where exactly he was. Some sort of what looked like a prison cell in a dungeon. He also saw Mishima hovering over him, looking concerned.   
  
“Oh thank god you’re alright,” he said in a relieved tone, “I was worried, you took a bad blow to the head and I wasn’t sure how long you’d be out. If you woke up at all.”   
  
“Where  _ nrggh _ …” Ren tried to say before letting out a pained groan, “Where are we?”   
  
“I don’t know, they knocked me out as well. I just woke up a few moments ago and I’m still trying to get my bearings myself.”   
  
**“AAAAAAAA!”** **  
** **  
** The loud scream caused both of them to jump.   
  
“The hell was that?!” Mishima yelled.   
  
**“GYAAAAAA!”** **  
** **  
** **“NO, STOP AAAAAAAAAAAA!”** **  
** **  
** **“HELP ME!!”** **  
** **  
** “Are there other people down here?” Ren asked rather distressed. He began banging against the bars.   
  
“Hello! Is there anybody out there?! Let us out of here!” Ren called out, only to find no answers in the slightest.   
  
“I don’t think that’s a good idea!” Mishima stated, pulling Ren back. “Whoever locked us down here might be the ones to come, and we’ve already experienced what happened with them!”   
  
Mishima pressed his hands into his forehead, “What have we gotten ourselves into? How did this happen? Who’s responsible? How are we gonna get out of here? What if we don’t get out of here? What if we die in here?!”   
  
Ren had had enough and grabbed Mishima by the shoulders and shook him, “Keep it together class rep, losing our minds isn’t going to solve anything. Now take a deep breath, and calm down!”   
  
Mishima did so and the two slumped to the ground, not sure where to go from there. Any musings they might have had was interrupted by the sounds of clanging. The two turned to their cell door and saw the familiar form of the guards they had met in the entrance hall stalking towards them.   
  
“Be glad that your punishment has been decided upon. Your charge is “unlawful entry”. Thus...you will be sentenced to death.” one of them said.   
  
“D-d-death?!” Mishima exclaimed rather alarmed.   
  
“No one’s allowed to do as they please in my castle.” the two of them heard a distorted voice say.    
  
The guards parted and a man wearing a robe covered in hearts and a crown walked up to the cell door.   
  
“Huh? Is that…” Ren started to say.   
  
“C-coach?” Mishima said rather fearfully.   
  
“I thought my guards had caught a couple petty thieves, but to think my own court jester would allow an intruder into my midst.” Kamoshida said in a rather arrogant tone.   
  
“Court jester? What are you talking about Coach?” Mishima said, not liking what he was hearing.    
  
“Our apologies my liege, we didn’t recognize this one out of uniform.” one of the guards said.   
  
“No harm done, though there is a matter of what to do about you two” Kamoshida said. “To think you would disobey me, that’s not very good Mishima. You’ll have to face some serious punishment for this offense. I won’t kill you, but you’ll be begging for death once I’m done. As for your friend.” Kamoshida paused and flashed a dangerous glare at Ren, “He’ll face the full penalty.”   
  
“C-coach whatever this is, you’ve proven your point. J-just let us out of here, and w-we’ll just pretend none of this ever happened.” Mishima said, growing more and more frightened.   
  
Kamoshida turned back towards Mishima, who let out a small eep in fear, “Is that any way to speak to your king? I don’t think you understand the position you’re in right now. Guards! Open the cell! The punishment begins now!”   
  
The cell door opened and before either Ren or Mishima could do anything Mishima was sent flying back from a punch by Kamoshida. He immediately followed it up by kicking Mishima in the stomach, causing him to gasp.   
  
“Stop it! You’re a teacher, it’s not right to do something like this!” Ren yelled, trying to pull Kamoshida away from Mishima.   
  
“A teacher you say?” Kamoshida stated, before punching Ren in the chest, causing Ren to double over. “I am the King of this castle! And a peasant like you does not deserve to touch a king so casually!”   
  
Kamoshida kicked Ren right in the jaw, causing blood to come out of his mouth and sending him to the ground. “A King is free to do whatever he wants, to whomever he wants!”   
  
Kamoshida demonstrated this point by kicking him in the stomach once again, almost causing Ren to vomit.   
  
“Leave him alone!” Mishima called out, trying his best to stop it, only to earn a shield bash from one of the guards.   
  
“Shut it Jester, you’ll get your turn!” the guard said.   
  
“Hmm..you seem familiar whelp.” Kamoshida said, picking up Ren by the throat. “Oh yeah….you were that kid standing next to Takamaki this morning.”   
  
“A-ann? What does she-” Ren tried to question, before Kamoshida’s grip tightened on his throat.    
  
“You dare speak her name so casually, giving me that defiant look. Me, a great contributor of society while you are nothing but a lowly insect. You remind me of someone else, someone who thought he could defy me but learned his place. Too bad you’ll never had the chance to learn yours!” Kamoshida yelled before punching Ren hard enough to knock the glasses from his face. “Now, let’s finish this!”   
  
“STOP!” Mishima yelled, before slamming into Kamoshida’s side, knocking Ren from his grip. Mishima struggled to hold him in place. “Run Amamiya, just get out of here!”   
  
“You fucking traitor!” Kamoshida exclaimed, sending Mishima flying with another punch before grabbing him by the hair. “You will pay for this, I’ll force your friend to watch as I squeeze the life from you.”   
  
  
“S...stop.” Ren said weakly. “P...please. J...just let him go. It’s...my...fault.”   
  
“Hmm…” Kamoshida seemed to consider it for a moment before giving a rather wicked smile, “No.”   
  
The guards picked Ren up and slammed him into the wall, pinning him with their lances.   
  
“Keep him there, he’ll be the next to die. Now watch...this is what happens to those who try to subvert my rules.” Kamoshida said, his grip closing around Mishima’s throat. Mishima struggled and gasped for breath as best he could, but Kamoshida was much too strong.   
  
“ _ Dammit! No!” _ Ren yelled in his mind.  _ “I need to stop this! I need to!” _ _  
_ _  
_ Ren struggled against the grip of the spears as best he could, but he couldn’t.   
  
  
**_“This is truly an unjust game...one that was rigged from the start…_ ** ” Ren heard a female voice say. Time almost seemed to stand still and the red tint of the world seemed to vanish  **_“But...if my voice is reaching you...there’s still a chance...don’t lose hope…don’t falter….awaken what you’ve lost...and you will triumph as you did before_ ** .”   
  
_ “As I did...what are you talking about _ ?” Ren thought, as if his mind would answer. Only to be surprised by a new voice calling out to him.  
  


* * *

  
  
“ **_Are you going to simply stand there and do nothing? Will you give up? Death awaits him if you do nothing. Was your previous decision….a mistake as well?”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_  
_ ** _ “Help me!” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “No.”  _ Ren answered, “ _ It wasn’t, it wasn’t a mistake!” _   
  
**_“You’ve found your resolve once again I see. Good, then the contract is renewed._ ** **”** **  
** **  
** Ren began struggling once more, pain exploding in his head.   
  
  
_ “ _ **_I am thou, thou art I...Thou who hast performed sacrilegious acts for thine own justice_ ** .”   
  
Ren struggled even more, his head felt like it was going to crack open.   
  
**_“You know the words to call upon me, the name of which to unleash my wrath. Speak it now, and release thy rage!”_ ** **_  
_ ** **_  
_ ** Ren let out a loud scream, which got the attention of Kamoshida long enough for his grip on Mishima’s throat to weaken.   
  
“ **_Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!”  
  
_ **

* * *

****  
  
“That’s...enough!” Ren let out through gritted teeth, a mask appearing on his face as he did so.   
  
“What was that?! You dare!” Kamoshida was ready to launch into a tirade, before noticing the change. “Where did that mask come from?! Guards, take him down!”   
  
One of the guards raised a sword, ready to kill Ren where he stood. Before he could however, a massive shockwave emanated from his body, sending the guard, Kamoshida and Mishima backwards, while knocking Mishima out of Kamoshida’s grip.   
  
Reflexively, both of Ren’s hands grasped the mask as hard as they could.   
  
“Per...Per…” Ren tried to say, before taking a deep breath and saying as loud as his voice possibly could allow, “PERSONA!”  
  
  
  
He ripped the mask from his face, causing blood to run down it, before being enveloped in a pillar of blue flames. The shockwave from this was even stronger than the previous one, sending the guards which had been pinning Ren to the wall crashing into the opposite one and breaking into pieces.   
  
As the pillar disappeared, it revealed that Ren’s outfit had completely changed into a  black ankle-length tailcoat, a high-necked waistcoat with gold accents, black jogger-style pants, brown-black winklepickers, and a pair of red gloves. He adopted a sinister grin on his face, as the mass of flames transformed even more into a monstrous form of a man, with a similar waistcoat to Ren’s, a coif, a red jacket, spiked leggings, large horns, a stovepipe hat, and large wings with black feathers.   
  
“ **I am the pillager of twilight, Arsene!** ” the being exclaimed.   
  
“W-what the…?” Mishima questioned.   
  
“Who the hell are you..!?” Kamoshida questioned, suddenly looking very fearful. “G-guards! Kill him!”   
  
The two guards suddenly twisted and transformed into monsters with pumpkins for heads, who sent a huge blast of flames Ren’s way. Ren braced himself as best he could, but after the blasts passed him by, he found there was very little damage on him.   
  
Opening his eyes, he saw that this “Arsene” had covered him and taken most of the blast himself.   
  
“ **Trust in me and I shall grant you my strength.** ” Arsene said to Ren,  **“Here they come! Dodge to the right!”** **  
** **  
** Ren did as he was told, avoiding the Jack O'lanterns attack.    
  
“ **Now swing your blade!”**   
  
Ren looked down at the knife that had appeared in his hand, but before he could question it, one of the monsters went for another attack run. Acting on instinct, Ren dodged while sending his arm outwards and slicing at it as it went by, cutting the monster in half. Before Ren could get his bearings, the other monster threw fire at him which barely missed him, and he heard Arsene do another callout.   
  
**“Block his attack!** ”   
  
Ren raised his arm and somehow managed to stop the monster in its tracks. He let out a primal yell and sent it backwards. As he did so, a word appeared in his mind,which he called out.   
  
“Eiha!”   
  
At this Arsene fired a blast of energy at the monster, blowing it to smithereens.   
  
“ **You did well for your first battle. I look forward to seeing what will happen.** ”  
  


* * *

  
  
Arsene disappeared and the mask reappeared on Ren’s face. He let out a series of breaths, before bending down and picking up the glasses that had been knocked off. Immediately he noticed his change in attire, and inspected it all over the place.   
  
“ _ Where did this come from? _ ”    
  
“A-all of my guards...in just one blow?!” he heard a voice say in the corner.   
  
“Oh my god...what was that?” Mishima weakly said, in awe of what just happened.   
  
Ren’s awareness returned to him and he rushed to grab the set of keys that Kamoshida had dropped, along with Mishima. He dragged the boy out of the cell and locked the door behind him, locking Kamoshida inside.   
  
Kamoshida ran up to the bars and began pounding on them. “You can’t do this to me! DAMN YOU! GUARDS THEY’RE TRYING TO ESCAPE!”   
  
Ren threw the keys into the nearby running water, and braced Mishima on his shoulder.   
  
“Let’s get out of here!” Ren exclaimed, and the two of them began running for their lives.   
  
“What even was that?!” Mishima yelled, trying to comprehend what just happened.   
  
Ren jumped over a nearby bridge and helped Mishima across. “I’m not sure myself.”   
  
Suddenly he heard the clanking of armor in a nearby hall and he pulled Mishima behind some crates. Eventually the guards passed them by and Ren let out a sigh of relief.   
  
“We need to find a way out of here!” Ren exclaimed quietly.   
  
“We don’t even know where here is! What if we can’t find a way out?!” Mishima exclaimed, also quietly but even more harried.   
  
Ren peeked over the boxes and saw what looked like a hallway leading to a spiral staircase.   
  
“If my knowledge of medieval history is correct, dungeons are typically in the basements of a castle. So if we go up, we’ll probably find a way out.”   
  
“It’s the only thing we have I suppose, I guess I’ll have to trust your logic.”   
  
Ren and Mishima booked it to the staircase and ran up it as fast as they possibly could. Eventually they found their way to a big wooden door.   
  
“Do you think...this is the exit?” Mishima asked through gasps of breath.   
  
“Only one way to find out,” Ren answered and he pushed open the door.   
  
The two looked around a grimaced.   
  
“Seriously?! Another prison floor.” Mishima exasperatedly said.   
  
“Let’s keep moving, the sooner we find the way out, the better.” Ren replied. Mishima nodded and the two continued their trek.   
  
“Is someone there..?” they heard a weak voice say, they turned to their right and in one of the cages they saw a student wearing what looked like an iron helmet.   
  
“So those were other voices I heard. We weren’t the only ones captured.” Ren stated.   
  
“Is he alright? We need to get him down!” Mishima stated.   
  
Just as Ren was about to summon Arsene however, his new outfit vanished and he found himself back in his school uniform.   
  
“Oh no! No not now!” Ren yelled, pulling at his school uniform.   
  
“Did you just lose whatever you had back in the cell?!” Mishima asked, feeling very frightened.   
  
“I feel it still there, I just can’t bring it out for some reason!”  Ren stated. “Arsene!”   
  
Despite Ren calling out the name, nothing changed.  Eventually they heard the clanking of armor once again.   
  
“Shit! We’ll worry about the others in here later, let’s just get out of here for now!” Ren exclaimed before running off, Mishima nodded and followed after. As they ran by they saw more and more cells filled with prisoners, all huddled on the ground moaning in pain. Ren felt bad, he felt really bad. What kind of absolute monster would do something for this?   
  
Eventually they found themselves at a dead end, with nowhere to go besides back the way they came, where they heard tons of guards already trampling by, or they could try to brave the rushing waters to the right of them and hope that they didn’t drown.  There was a bridge, but it was raised and neither of the two of them could figure out how exactly to lower it. Things looked grim, very very grim.   
  
“What do we do? What the hell do we do?” Mishima said over and over in a panicked tone.   
  
“Hey! You two!” they heard a voice to the left of them say. “Frizzy hair! Bandaged boy! Over here!”   
  
The two turned to the cell and they jumped back at what was inside. It looked like some kind of cat creature.   
  
“You guys aren’t soldiers of this castle, right?! Get me out of here!” the creature begged them, “Look, the key’s right there. Just grab it and unlock the door.”   
  
“W-why the hell would we do that?! You look just like one of those things that tried to kill us! Why should we let out a potential threat?” Mishima fired back.   
  
Ren nodded at the assessment, “You do seem rather suspicious umm...Cat Person, how do we know you can be trusted?”   
  
The creature snarled at them and slammed at the bars, “Don’t call me a cat! Say that again and I’ll make you regret it!”   
  
The creature seemed to immediately regret it’s words, and took a deep breath to calm down. “Look, you guys want to find your way out of here right? I know the exit and I can lead you there if you let me out. Trust me.”   
  
The two both thought hard about it, but eventually the sounds of clanking armor getting closer and closer won out on logic.    
  
“You better not be lying” Ren said, a threat implied.   
  
“I’m not, I’m telling the truth,” the cat creature said, nodding its head.   
  
With little else that could be done, Ren grabbed the key and unlocked the door.  
  


* * *


	5. Morgana

The door swung open without a care.   
  
“Thank you my good sir.” the cat creature said, which was followed up by it bowing and stretching. “Ahh...freedom tastes so great.”   
  
“Look we held up our end, now help us get out of here!” Mishima said, growing more and more frightened and the sound of clanking armor growing closer and closer.   
  
“All in good time Bandages, it’ll be easy now that you have the legendary Phantom Thief Morgana at your side.” the cat creature said in a haughty tone, before bounding off and smacking a nearby switch, lowering the bridge. “Now, are you two coming or not?”   
  
Ren and Mishima exchanged looks, before booking it across the bridge, with Morgana in front. They went through several passages, with the guards not sounding like they were very far behind. Several times they had to hide to prevent the guard patrols from seeing them.   
  
“Through here!” Morgana said, pointing at a nearby passage.   
  
The three ran into it, only to find it blocked by a guard.   
  
“Shit!” Ren exclaimed.   
  
“Don’t worry, I got this.” Morgana said cooly, “ZORRO!”   
  
As Morgana called this out, a massive man in a black suit and jacket, with a silver and red belt with the letter Z on it, appeared behind it.   
  
“Witness my resolve! GARU!” Morgana called out, and the thing called Zorro drew a Z in the air with his sword and sent a massive blast of wind which sent the guard flying back.   
  
“Whoa, you can do that too?” Mishima said in awe.   
  
“Too?” Morgana asked in a questioning way.   
  
“No time! Let’s just go!” Ren shook his head and charged off before the guard could wake up.   
  
The two simply shrugged and followed close after him. Eventually they found the sound of clanking coming from both sides, and Ren began panicking.   
  
“In here!” Mishima stated, knocking down a nearby door. The three all hid in the room and closed the door behind them which gave them a chance to catch their breath. Ren listened at the door and silently prayed the guards wouldn’t check in here. His prayers were answered as he heard the guards moving away from them. He let out a sigh of relief and slumped against the door frame.   
  
“It shouldn’t be much longer till we get to the exit, just a little further and we’ll make it.” Ren heard Morgana say. “The shadows probably won’t come in here.”   
  
“Shadows?” Mishima questioned, “Is that what those things that have been chasing us are called?”   
  
“Indeed.” Morgana nodded.   
  
“How can you be so sure they won’t come in here?” Ren asked, raising an eyebrow.   
  
“There’s a lack of distortion, meaning the ruler’s control over this area is weak.” answered Morgana, matter-of-factly.

 

Ren stood up and looked around the room. For all intents and purposes it looked like some kind of common dining room. However as Ren kept looking, the room suddenly shifted into what looked like a normal classroom. The sight made Ren and Mishima gasp, before it suddenly switched back into the dining room.   
  
“Congrats Bandages, you found us a safe room. Nice work!” Morgana said, giving Mishima an approximation of a thumbs up, if a cat had thumbs anyway.   
  
“Would you stop calling that?!” Mishima angrily stated, “If we’re really as safe as you say, then we have a chance to breathe. Which means, I have some questions that I need answered before we go any further. Like what is this place? What are those things? What the hell are you?”   
  
Ren nodded, curious as well. “I could use a few answers as well.”   
  
Ren stared at Morgana for a while. Something was...off about it. Something he couldn’t quite place. For the most part, it looked feline-like. However there was a few things off, such as the yellow bandana around its neck, the black latex suit the it was wearing, but most importantly was its red spiral like eyes.  There was that same sense of familiarity about it that he had felt before about some earlier circumstances, but he couldn’t help but find something was...wrong about it. Of course it was wrong, it was a cat monster, but Ren couldn’t help but still feel that Morgana was...different than what he was expecting for lack of a better term.   
  
“Alright alright, hold your horses. I’ll answer all your questions if you answer one of mine at the end. And only because it’s thanks to you two that I got out of that mess. Deal?” Morgana replied, sitting down on the table.   
  
“Deal.” Ren replied.   
  
“Alright, now spill. What is this...castle?” Mishima asked first.   
  
“This place...is a palace.” Morgana stated simply. Upon noticing their confused looks, it sighed and continued, “A palace, is another reality that the ruler’s heart projects.  You could say it’s a world in which one’s distorted desires have materialized. It looks like a castle because the ruler thinks of this place as his own castle. His distorted heart views it as such.”   
  
“So, Kamoshida thinks of himself as the king of his own castle, and he transformed the school to be like that in this...reality?” Ren said.   
  
“Precisely Frizzy Hair.” Morgana said while sporting a...cheshire grin.   
  
“So...he really sees himself as a king…it’s just like everyone on the track team said...” Mishima said quietly while slumping down.    
  
“Hmm...something wrong Bandages?” Morgana questioned.   
  
“Track team?” Ren questioned, “I thought Kamoshida coached volleyball.”   
  
“He does.” Mishima confirmed, “But.,,,it’s not the only sports team Shujin has.  The volleyball team is the most prominent, but...the track team isn’t far behind. They even managed to win a title last year. Coach Kamoshida...he said it was only because he took over for a little bit that they managed to win. There was rumors though that he tried to shut it down during his time as the substitute coach though, but somehow whatever he did...they managed to endure.  Ever since then the track team members always gives Kamoshida the evil eye whenever they see him, they say he acts like the king of the school.”   
  
Mishima slumped against the wall and let out a humorless chuckle, “God...if they knew just how right they were.”   
  
Ren looked concerned at Mishima, who looked very down to the point of almost crying.   
  
“Hey...um...Bandages? I don’t know what that guy did to ya, but...it’ll be okay.” Morgana said in an equally concerned tone, walking down and pressing a paw against him.   
  
“It’s Mishima, Yuuki Mishima.” Mishima answered back.   
  
“Alright Mishima, just buck up. We’ll get you out of here and things will be okay.” Morgana said, trying to make him feel better.   
  
Mishima let out another laugh, this one actually genuine, “You know, hearing you say that almost make me believe it. Thanks umm...Morgana, you’re really nice for a talking monster cat.”   
  
“Grrr I’m not a-” Morgana almost yelled, before Mishima started scratching behind its ears, causing it to make a purring noise. Eventually Morgana pushed Mishima’s hand away and yelled, “STOP THAT!” in an embarrassed tone.   
  
“Last question...who or what are you?” Ren asked.   
  
“I’m a human--an honest-to-god human.” Morgana stated in an obvious tone, as if it was stating that the sky is blue or that grass is green.   
  
“Uh...follow up question?” Ren answered once both him and Mishima let that information hang in the air for a while.   
  
Morgana looked down and got sad, “This is, well...it’s because I lost my real form….I think.”   
  
“You think?” Mishima questioned.   
  
“But I do know how to regain my true form. The reason why I snuck in here was for a preliminary investigation of those means.” Morgana stated proudly, before rubbing its head, “But...I ended up getting caught while snooping. That man you call Kamoshida has been torturing me for who knows how long, and I plan to make him pay for sure.”   
  
“God...this sounds completely nuts.” said Mishima, looking up at the ceiling.   
  
“Now I’ve got a question for you two. What did Mishima mean when he talked about my Persona? Something about you guys being able to use the same power?” Morgana questioned.   
  
“Well...it’s how we managed to escape. I...summoned something called Arsene...and my clothes changed…” Ren tried to explain.   
  
“You have the power of Persona too?!” Morgana said excitedly.   
  
“I did, but it just seemed to run out or something.” Ren continued.   
  
“Hmm...so you’re a amateur ey? Your powers are still a bit unstable, it’s understandable.” said Morgana, nodding, “Work at it, and you’ll maybe be able to become a Phantom Thief, just like me.”   
  
“A...Phantom Thief?” Ren questioned, eyebrow raised. The term spoke to him for some reason, he kind of liked the sound of it.   
  
“Now come on. Let’s get out of here.” Morgana said, running to the door and peaking through it. “Coast is clear for now, let’s move. I’ll be counting on you rookie. Got it?”   
  
“Right.” Ren said, sneaking out the door behind Morgana with Mishima following after him.  
  


* * *

  
  
The three continued their trek through the dungeon. Eventually they found their way into what seemed like an extra long corridor.   
  
“Shit, I must have lost track when we were running. We might have gotten turned around.” Morgana stated, wondering just how lost they were.   
  
“Well is there any way we can tell where we’re at?” asked Ren.   
  
“Hmm...give me a sec and let me see. Let’s scout on ahead and I might be able to find the right path. I mapped out a fair bit of this place in my head.” Morgana stated, nodding.   
  
The three headed down another passageway, eventually finding themselves before a rather large door with a banner hanging over it.   
  
“Kamoshida’s Training Hall of Love?” Ren read out loud. “What the hell is this?”   
  
There were tons of moans coming from the other side of the door, which filled Ren with a sense of dread.   
  
“It’s the way to the main entrance hall. It’s the only way out of here since we can’t go through my secret way with all the guards roaming the dungeon.” Morgana stated.   
  
Ren steeled his nerves and pushed the door open and continued their way inside. The pained moans grew louder and louder as they ran down the staircase.   
  
Eventually the three found their way to a walkway overlooking what looked like a few large chambers. They could see into the chamber through the bars on the side of the walkway, but what was inside….Ren couldn’t prepare for what he saw. Several students were tied up to a volleyball net, being lashed by a few of the guards. The kids being lashed were begging for mercy but the guards wouldn’t let up. In the next chamber, there were a few students running towards a water jug and away from what looked like a rolling cylinder covered in spikes. And in the third...a student being blasted with volleyballs being fired out of a cannon. Every time a ball hit, the student let out what sounded like a dry heave. At the bottom looked like a puddle of vomit, the poor bastard must’ve been beaten so many times that he was nothing but dry heaves now.   
  
“Holy….” was the only thing that Ren could say. He figured that Kamoshida was doing some pretty bad things, Morgana had said this place was a reflection of Kamoshida and given what he had already seen….   
  
But this….this was horrific.   
  
“We….we have to get them out of there!” Ren stated, trying to pry off the bars with his bare hands. “This is….this is cruel and insane, no one should be subjected to stuff like this.”   
  
“I know it looks bad Frizzy Hair, but you need to keep your head on straight!” Morgana said, trying to pull Ren back. “They aren’t real people!”   
  
“What do you mean they’re not real?” Ren charge   
  
“They’re just constructs of Kamoshida’s mind, they’re not real humans they’re more like….extremely realistic and similar looking dolls.” Morgana explained.   
  
Ren calmed down, trying to understand and comprehend exactly what Morgana laid out. Morgana walked up to the bars and placed a paw on it.   
  
“Still....this is something awful. It must mean that he does the exact same thing to people in the real world too, treating them like slaves and subjecting them to torture.” Morgana said with a melancholic tone. “They must be physically abused every day. There’s no way they’d be so beat up normally.”   
  
“The only people whom I know of that he interacts with is the Volleyball Team that he’s the coach for. He must be doing all this cruel stuff to them.” Ren was interrupted in his thought process by the noticing of the sudden disappearance of his companion. “Where’s Mishima?!”   
  
“Shit, he must have run ahead!” Morgana exclaimed, “Not that I blame him, I wouldn’t exactly wanna stick around here either.”   
  
“He’s a member of the Volleyball Team, and the bandages…” Ren said, his mind putting it all together.   
  
“We need to go! We need to find him before he runs into any guards!” Morgana yelled out, bounding ahead towards a nearby door on the other side of the room.  When the two managed to get to it, they both noticed it was already ajar.   
  
“He must have gone this way.” Ren stated, as if he didn’t already know. The two rushed through the door and out into a courtyard.   
  
“Where to now?” Ren stated, hiding behind a few crates when he saw a guard stomping nearby on the bridge.   
  
“I’m a lot more oriented now, I remember the way out!” Morgana stated quietly from behind the crates. “If we head through the door behind us and up the staircase, we should find ourselves in the entrance hall. From there it’ll be child’s play to escape..”   
  
Ren nodded. “I’ll follow your lead I guess, hopefully Mishima is in that direction as well.”    
  
The two peeked above the crates to make sure that there were no other guards patrolling that would see them go the other way. With no one in sight, the two went through yet another ajar door, finding a staircase up to the gaudy golden room that Ren remembered passing through when he first walked in. He had a sinking feeling seeing the gate above the door, and really hoped that they weren’t walking straight into a trap.  He had the feeling that Morgana was trustworthy, something about it once again felt entirely familiar. How odd was that though, that he found a talking cat monster familiar in some way? Eventually the two crossed the threshold and found Mishima, who was unfortunately surrounded by several guards who were taking turns beating on the poor kid.   
  
“If you were ever to get your powers working again, now would be the time Frizzy Hair!” Morgana said, as it charged into the fray and blasted one of the guards away.   
  
“Come on, come on!” Ren concentrated as best he could, trying to bring out Arsene again, “I need to help out somehow!”   
  
As Ren strained his mind, the outfit he had worn before reappeared on his body.   
  
“Come, ARSENE!” Ren called out, and the being reappeared and blasted away one of the guards with curse energy.   
  
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Morgana called out, appreciating the sight.   
  
Ren and Morgana made quick work of the guards, with Ren grabbing Mishima and bracing him on his shoulder yet again.   
  
“This is where we go our separate ways Frizzy Hair. I’ve still got stuff to do in the Palace.” Morgana called out, blasting another nearby guard.   
  
“What?!” Ren exclaimed. “I can’t just leave you to face everything in here alone!”   
  
“I’ll be fine, you just get your friend out of here.” Morgana said, waving off his concern.   
  
Ren was of two minds about leaving, but considering how fragile Mishima was at the moment he decided it was better to get out now.   
  
“Thanks for helping us get out of here.” Ren said, nodding and running towards the direction of the exit. “I’ll come back to help you another time.”   
  
“Quite the gentleman, I’ll look forward to seeing you again Frizzy Hair.  Don’t keep a lady waiting too long you hear?” Morgana said after him.   
  
That statement made Ren’s mind freeze for a second, “Wait you’re a-”   
  
Ren didn’t get to finish the statement, as he felt the world shift around him like before. The castle soon vanished, along with Ren’s Phantom Thief outfit, leaving him and Mishima out in the real world.   
  
  


* * *

  
  
Ren let out a sigh and went to check on Mishima, who was doubled over next to him.     
  
“Are you alright?” Ren said, but Mishima didn’t respond. Ren felt more and more concerned, until Mishima got up and dusted himself off.   
  
“I’m fine.” he said in a monotone.   
  
“You don’t look fine.” Ren said, giving him the once over. “There was a lot of intense stuff in there, if you need to talk about it-”   
  
“I SAID I’M FINE!” Mishima replied sharply.   
  
Ren was taken aback by the yelling but continued, “Listen, about what we saw in there-”   
  
“Just forget it, okay.” Mishima answered back, cutting him off again.   
  
“Mishima, whatever that man is doing to you and the others isn’t right. We need to tell someone, this can’t continue.” Ren tried to say.   
  
“You don’t understand, you’ll never understand. There’s no point in fighting.” Mishima said before running off back to the school.   
  
“Mishima wait!” Ren called out, chasing after him.  When Ren arrived back at the school, he noticed something rather off about it. Primarily in the fact that it seemed rather empty.  He pulled out his phone and checked the time, which caused his eyes to bug out of his head. School had ended almost two hours ago, he had completely missed afternoon classes.  That was pretty bad form for him, he could only imagine what Sojiro would say when he got back to LeBlanc. Cutting class on his first day, he was in for pure hell in a handbasket.   
  
“HEY!” he heard a voice down the hall say, and he turned to see Kawakami stocking towards him. “Guidance room. Now.”   
  
“Y-yes ma’am.” Ren said, following after the frustrated teacher.  He saw Mishima was trailing behind her as well, but he refused to even look at him. Ren tried to get his attention, but anytime he tried he earned a stink eye from Kawakami.   
  
They were just about to walk into the guidance counselor’s office, when a voice from behind them popped up.   
  
“There you are Yuuki, Coach expected you back a while ago.” a girl seemed to say.   
  
The three turned towards the voice and Ren caught sight of a girl running down the hallway. It was a girl with a dark black ponytail, wearing a similar style uniform that Yuuki had been, with running shoes, black bandages around her elbows and a leg brace on her right leg.   
  
“Shiho? What are you still doing here?” Yuuki said, surprised at the sight of her apparently.   
  
“Coach was concerned when you didn’t come back for practice after he sent you out to pick up some things for the volleyball rally, so he asked me to stay behind in case you showed up.” the girl apparently named Shiho said. “Sensei, I apologize. I was asked to send Yuuki on an errand during lunchtime but I forgot to inform you. My mistake. Also I asked Amamiya to help him out so that Yuuki could help give him a lay of the land here.”   
  
Ren already knew that the girl was lying her ass off, but he decided to play into it. “That’s right Sensei, something came up that class rep here needed help with so I was volunteered as the new person in class. It was my fault we got lost getting back here. I would’ve called the front office about it but I was never given the number and class rep didn’t seem to have it either.”   
  
“Do you really expect me to believe that?” Kawakami said, eyeing him suspiciously.   
  
“It’s the truth Sensei.” Mishima said monotonically. “I couldn’t handle it myself.”   
  
Kawakami picked up on Mishima’s tone and immediately got concerned, “Are you sure Mishima-kun? You aren’t being forced to say that are you?”   
  
“No ma’am.” he replied in the same tone. “I just messed us up, it was all my fault anyway for getting lost.”   
  
Kawakami was still skeptical, but she figured she could just confirm it with Kamoshida tomorrow anyway. Eventually she shrugged and replied, “Alright, I’ll let you both off the hook for now. But this better not happen again or else. Amamiya, I’ll still be informing your guardian about your tardiness, but I’ll let him know it was for a good reason.”   
  
“Of course, I understand Sensei.” Ren said, and he watched as Kawakami walk off.  Before Ren could talk to Mishima again, Mishima had already ran off in the other direction. Ren decided he’d just have to talk to the boy tomorrow about what happened.   
  
“Umm...thanks for the save.” Ren said to Shiho.   
  
“Not a problem, though it was more to help my fellow teammate than you.   
  
“So...you already know my na-” Ren said before he was cut off.   
  
“Indeed I do, word travels fast in the rumor mill. What I’d like to know, is why exactly a delinquent transfer student missed half of his first day of school? And where do you get off roping Yuuki into whatever you were doing?” Shiho said, poking at Ren’s chest.   
  
Ren knew she’d never believe his tales about what had happened in the castle, or hell that the castle even existed at all. The best he could do at the moment was lie his ass off.    
  
“We got a little sidetracked coming back from lunch, there was a….stray cat that needed help. We tried to help it and hoped to figure out if it belonged to anyone, but it got away. After that we ran into some guys who tried to attack us, so we had to hide out from them for a while until we got back.”   
  
It wasn’t the best lie he could’ve come up with, but there was a few kernals of truth. In a way it was like a layman’s explanation of what had happened in the castle. Ren could tell Shiho looked unconvinced.   
  
“Look whatever you got up to, I don’t care. But if you got Yuuki involved in anything dangerous-” Shiho started to say, before Ren cut her off.   
  
“Anything more dangerous than being involved with the volleyball team of this school?” Ren had said, stopping Shiho in her tracks.   
  
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” she said while crossing her arms.   
  
“Is it though? Like you said, word travels around the rumor mill pretty fast.” Ren turned her words against her. “And I saw Kamoshida threatening Mishima while I was heading out for lunch.  I’m not stupid, with the injuries that he had it’s either this school has a greater bullying problem than I thought or something is up with the volleyball team. And considering your injuries as well...I believe it’s the latter rather than the former.”   
  
Shiho was shocked and didn’t say anything, so Ren continued speaking.  “I’ve seen people like him at my old school. I just wanted to give him a bit of respite from whatever pain he was going through.  Something bad happened and that’s why we were late coming back. That’s the truth.”   
  
Shiho looked down at the floor, feeling a bit guilty now for accusing him. “I...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so aggressive. I was just….just worried is all. With the rumors about you….”   
  
“Apology accepted, I understand why you would be worried. I would be too I guess.” Ren said while nodding. “Again, thanks for helping us back there. I need to get home though, it was nice meeting you...umm...”   
  
“Shiho, Shiho Suzui.” Shiho said.   
  
“Ren Amamiya.” Ren replied with a smile, and he slung his bag over his shoulder and walked away.   
  
“Hey um...Amamiya.” Shiho called out.   
  
Ren turned back to listen. “Umm...this might not be any of my business but...don’t let the rumors get to you, OK…?”   
  
“What makes you say that?” Ren asked, a bit confused.   
  
“My best friend...she’s often misunderstood too, all because of her looks. I should know not to buy into the mill all the time but I forgot about that.” she explained. “Just...don’t worry about it...okay?”   
  
Ren stood there and watched as Shiho ran off, processing what she had said.    
  


* * *


	6. Training Day

That night, fitful sleep escaped Ren once more as he once again woke up within the prison cell from before. He strained at the chains on his wrist, before deciding it was ultimately a fruitless endeavor.   
  
“About time you come to…”   
  
**CLANG!**   
  
“On your feet inmate! Our master wishes to speak with you!” he heard one of the wardens say.   
  
“Wonderful…” Ren said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.   
  
“So...you managed to awaken that which is slumbering in your soul.” he heard a voice in the darkness say. Looking closer, Ren’s eyes adjusted and he saw the man he had seen playing the piano before. “You’re quite the interesting guest, more interesting than I’ve seen in a long time.”   
  
“Hey!” Ren saw the warden bang on the bars with her nightstick once again, “No speaking with the prisoner.”   
  
“Come now Caroline, that is no way to speak to Nameless.” Ren heard the man he remembered as Igor say.   
  
“But master-” Caroline tried to object, before a wave of Igor’s hand silenced her.    
  
“My apologies for my sister master.” Ren heard the other warden say.   
  
“It is quite alright Justine.” Igor replied, “I know she can be a bit...abrasive sometimes. Now then, onto you young Amamiya.”   
  
Igor got up from his desk and walked to Ren’s cell once more. “First off, let us celebrate our reunion. You’ve awakened the power of Persona, correct? Splendid, absolutely splendid. Your rehabilitation can finally begin.You will be training the power of Persona within you.”   
  
“Persona? Did you have something to do with what happened in the Palace?” Ren questioned the man.   
  
“You can think that if you so wish...I merely gave you an opportunity.” Igor replied cryptically.   
  
  
“Personas are, in easy terms, a “mask”--an armor of the heart when confronting worldly matters. There is no need to understand it all for now, you’ll understand more when the time comes Trickster.  Everything that happens, for good or ill, is all for the purposes of your rehabilitation. ” Igor said.   
  
“You keep saying that, you keep using that word, but what the hell does it mean?! What am I going through this rehabilitation for?!” Ren questioned angrily.   
  
“It is to decide the fate of your world, the fate of yourself as well. You will face many trials ahead, ones that will make the...application on your phone quite useful indeed. The Metaverse Navigator will allow you to come and go between reality and palaces.”   
  
“So that’s what that app was, that’s how I wound up in Kamoshida’s Palace.” Ren said, nodding emphatically.   
  
“I bestowed it to you, as a means to train you as a thief.”   
  
“The MetaNav is a gift from our master! You will treat it with respect Inmate!” Caroline said.   
  
“Devote yourself to your training so that you may become a fine thief.” Justine said in turn.   
  
  
“Also….locked within you, is a rare talent.  A talent that only you and a select few others possess. A ...gift from my former master if you will. I’m sure you will relearn it in time.  And from there, you have a choice. Let that talent grow, or let it decay. Use your Persona and fight...or push towards ruin…I have high expectations for you.” Igor finished.   
  
Ren didn’t get to ask anymore questions, as the bell to wake him up run once more.   
  


* * *

  
  
Ren yawned as he walked along the path to school, luckily he had remembered to bring an umbrella to keep the rain off of him today.  He let out a sigh as he felt the events of yesterday play out again in his mind. The whole day had felt like some kind of fever dream, a nightmare he had been lucky to wake up from. However, every time he looked at his phone and saw the icon of whatever the hell app was on his phone, he was given a painful reminder that it had been all too real. Not to mention the chewing out by Sojiro the previous day about missing class was still fresh in his mind. The night he had spent washing dishes to make up for it was long and arduous, but Ren had been fine with it. Ren didn’t know what to think of what happened, of what he had seen of what he had learned. This cycle of abuse, all perpetuated by one man, and so many people caught up in it.  Why hadn’t Mishima wanted to talk about it with anyone? Maybe he was under threat not to? Maybe he had tried and had been shot down by anyone who listened? Maybe he was complicit and participated in it?   
  
The last one didn’t seem likely, from what Ren could tell Mishima seemed like a nice enough person, same with the girl from yesterday. So...what could he do? Ren wasn’t exactly Mr. Popular considering his record, any accusations he made would just be ignored.  Not to mention, Ren figured that nobody would be on his side...just like what happened with the whole thing that was the reason why he was here to begin with. Maybe he could try talking to Mishima again, get him to open up? See if any of the other members of the Volleyball Team would be willing to speak up? See if anyone in the school who knew of Kamoshida’s conduct was willing to speak? Granted there probably wasn’t much he could do on that front either, again because of his bad reputation.   
  
So he supposed he was left with only one real option, go back into the castle and see if there was something in there he could use.  Maybe if he snapped a couple pictures of the “Training Chamber Of Love”, he’d have a lot more weight behind whatever accusations he threw out. He supposed he’d have to wait until after school to try though, maybe he’d grab a few supplies from the local convenience store before he went in to make the trek through a bit easier.   
  
Ren was shaken out of his thoughts when he walked up the steps of the school and was bumped into by a rather large man.   
  
“Oh, if it isn’t the transfer student?” he heard the man say.   
  
Ren looked up and saw he was face to face with Kamoshida himself.   
  
“Pretty ballsy, cutting class the first day.” Kamoshida continued. “Don’t forget, you’re on probation. You can’t afford to slip up.”   
  
Ren had to resist the urge to sock the bastard right then and there, but he figured that doing so wouldn’t do much good for anyone so instead he replied in a chilling tone, “Not to worry Sensei, it won’t happen again.”   
  
Kamoshida was taken aback by the tone and the look Ren gave him, but refused to be intimidated, “Yes well...see that it doesn’t.”   
  
Ren ignored the man and continued walking inside.   
  
“Damn delinquent, doesn’t belong anywhere near this school.” Kamoshida said under his breath.   
  


* * *

  
Once again time passed by through classes rather quickly for Ren. He was thankful for that as most of the material talked about wasn’t particularly interesting. Eventually lunch break came around and he tried his damndest to get into contact with Mishima but the blue haired boy apparently had duties he had to take care of and ran off before Ren could even get a word in.   
  
Ren sat out on the quad, munching on the bread he had bought from the school store. Luckily enough the line hadn’t been too long today, but Ren resolved he’d have to pack his own lunches eventually.  He wondered if Sojiro knew of any part time jobs in the area he could work at to get some grocery money.   
  
As he munched on the bread, he watched the people milling around and talking. It was kind of a nice day out now that the rain had stopped, small victories he supposed. Ren noticed how many people seemed to be covered in bandages, it was horrific especially to him considering he knew exactly where those injuries were from. As he observed though, he saw a familiar blue haired kid walking down the the hallway of the other building.  Packing away his bread, Ren pulled his bag onto his shoulder and ran off after him. Catching up with Mishima, he pulled the kid aside.   
  
Mishima yelped in surprise before seeing Ren. “Oh...it’s you.”   
  
“Yeah, it’s me.” Ren said. “Look, about what happened yesterday…”   
  
“It was just a bad dream, nothing more nothing less.” Mishima said, avoiding eye contact with Ren.   
  
“I know you feel that way Mishima, but that’s not the case.” Ren pulled out his phone and showed it to him. “See this app, this is how we wound up in that place. It was real, real as anything could be. And...what we saw in there was real as well.”   
  
“No it’s not!” Mishima fired back. “Coach might get a little...harsh during practice, but that’s just to make us improve and get better.  What you saw, it was nothing more than an exaggeration.”   
  
“An exagera...look around! I’ve seen kids all over the place covered in bandages and bruises, including you. This isn’t strictness, it’s….it’s abuse. Pure abuse, plain and simple.”   
  
Ren softened up, “Look, I know the volleyball team is important here, but that’s no excuse for what’s going on. Kamoshida shouldn’t be allowed to do these things, not to you or anyone else.”   
  
He placed a hand on Mishima’s shoulder, “Just...tell me the truth.  I can prove what’s going on with your help, if we do that he’ll be forced to leave.”   
  
Mishima was silent for a good long while before he responded. “There’s...there’s no point.”   
  
“What do you mean?” Ren asked.   
  
“It’s meaningless, whether you can prove it or not….everybody knows.  The principal, my parents, my teammates’ parents too. They all know, and they keep quiet about it.” Mishima answered in a melancholic tone.   
  
“Wha….how can….that’s…” Ren tried to put a sentence together but he couldn’t comprehend what he was hearing.   
  
“You’re new here Amamiya, so I know you don’t know how it works around here.  I appreciate your thoughts but...I can’t help you.” Mishima said, beginning to walk away.   
  
“Wait, the Palace! I-I know it was a scary place but if we just go back and get Morgana’s help-” Ren tried to say before being cut off.   
  
“If that place was real, which it’s not, I almost died in there.  I won’t go back there, not if I can help it.” Mishima said.   
  
Ren knew this was a fair point, but he kept pushing, “Well...then you don’t have to go in. I won’t force you to. But I could still use your help regardless-”   
  
“I’m not going to spy for you Amamiya!” Mishima shouted back. “You don’t get it, the team is going to Nationals soon. I won’t ruin that for the others, especially Shiho. I won’t let our hard work go to waste.”   
  
“Mishima-” Ren tried to say, but Mishima wasn’t listening.   
  
“Mishima!” Ren called out again, but by this point the boy had already broken out into a sprint away. “Dammit, that could’ve gone better.”   
  


* * *

  
“Thanks for meeting with me Ann.” Shiho said, as she ate her lunch.   
  
“Hey don’t worry about it, like I need an excuse to spend time with my best friend.” Ann replied with a smile. “Just….are you sure you’re okay? That swelling looks really bad.”   
  
“It’s fine, just...practice was a little tough yesterday. Coach wants us in peak form for the Nationals, and with me being a starter…” Shiho replied, trailing off and continuing eating. “Sometimes...I don’t feel like I deserve the spot.”   
  
“Hey get off that, you earned that spot.  You’ve loved volleyball ever since middle school, and you’ve been wanting this for so long.” Ann replied. “Just...be careful okay?”   
  
“I will yeah...after all volleyball is the only thing I’m good at.” Shiho said, munching on her sandwich.   
  
“Shiho…” Ann said in a concerned tone, but she was interrupted by the sound of her phone buzzing.  Ann picked it up and her entire body went paler than usual.   
  
“Is there something wrong?” Shiho asked, wondering about the change in her friend’s demeanor.   
  
“It’s...it’s nothing. Just work is all.” Ann repied after a moment’s silence.   
  
“Shouldn’t you take the call then?” Shiho said, confused.   
  
“Nah, I’ll just...let it go to voicemail. I’m fine just spending time with you right now.” Ann said, trying to change the topic.   
  
“Ann…” it was Shiho’s turn to be concerned.    
  
“It’s fine, I’ll just call hi-them...call them back later.” Ann said.   
  
“...Okay then.” Shiho said, unconvinced but deciding to let it go for now. Ann was probably busy and didn’t want to burden her, she was always like that.   
  


* * *

  
At the end of the day, once everybody had gone home, Ren ducked into an alleyway and pulled out his phone. Sure enough, when he opened the application he found the words he had said yesterday in some combination within what seemed like the search history.   
  
“Suguru Kamoshida, Shujin Academy, Castle...so that’s how it happened. Well, guess I’ll have to see if it can work again.”   
  
Ren pressed the entry with the keywords, and his phone chirped in response. “Beginning Navigation…”   
  
Sure enough the waves that had happened before happened once again, transferring Ren into the world where the Palace existed.  His clothes had transformed back into the Phantom Thief outfit, and the school shifted once more into a castle.   
  
“So...I guess what happened yesterday really wasn’t a dream. Alright...I guess I’ll have to see if I can find Morgana again.” Ren said out loud.   
  
“Well you won’t need to look for long frizzy hair.” he heard voice in the shadows say.   
  
Ren jumped back and pulled out his knife, earning a laugh from the cat in the shadows. “Geez, paranoid much? Then again I don’t blame you, you’ve got pretty good instincts.”   
  
  
Morgana came out into the light, wearing a big toothy grin. “Although coming here, to an entrance you barely escaped the last time? You really are a newbie.”   
  
“Nice to see you too.” Ren said.   
  
“I’m guessing you’re back for a specific reason?” Morgana asked.   
  
“I need to get back into the Training Room, I need evidence of what Kamoshida’s been up to.” Ren replied.   
  
“Well...that’s not going to be easy to do considering technology doesn’t really seem to work here.” Morgana said, ‘Otherwise I wouldn’t have had to rely on analog lockpicks.”   
  
“What?” Ren said, and he pulled out his phone. Sure enough, he didn’t have any service and the camera app wouldn’t open. “The only thing that’s working is the Metaverse Navigator.”   
  
“Metaverse Navigator?” Morgana questioned.   
  
“It’s how I travel between the real world and here.” Ren replied.   
  
“Ooooo, so you have a way into the real world?!” Morgana said excitedly, “That’s great, I’ve wanted to leave this place for so long.”   
  
Ren stored that in his thoughts for later. He was too angry to deal with it at the moment. “So I can’t get evidence of what Kamoshida’s up to?! Fantastic, now how am I going to stop him?”   
  
“Chill out Frizzy Hair, I have an idea. A...project I’ve been working on. One that’ll help us both get what we want. But in order to do it, I’ll need your promise that you’ll help.” Morgana said. “Can I count on you?”   
  
Ren thought about questioning what could possibly go into this plan but he didn’t really have any other alternative options. “Alright, I promise I’ll help you.”   
  
“Fantastic, and that means I can show you the ropes while we infiltrate.” Morgana said in a proud tone.   
  
“Fair enough, lead the way.” Ren said, following Morgana towards an open window. “By the way, about what you said when me and Mishima were leaving...are you...I mean I don’t want to assume…”   
  
“Yes...I’m a girl. Let’s get that out of the way now I suppose.” Morgana said. “Is that a problem?”   
  
Something in Ren’s mind said yes, but Ren ignored it and shook his head.    
  
“Great. Now lesson 1” Morgana said as she climbed through the nearby window, “Thieves don’t use the front entrance.”   
  


* * *

  
The infiltration had been pulled off quite well so far, no guards had spotted the two of them yet. Of course that wasn’t a problem considering a lot of the guards were all gathered in the front entrance.   
  
“I want around the clock patrols! I want to make sure that each and every corner of this place is protected. We failed in our attempts to stop the intruders yesterday, and we brought shame on King Kamoshida because of it. I don’t want a repeat of it again, is that clear?” the head guard said.   
  
“Yes sir!” the swarm of guards all said.   
  
“Well...guess we’re not going that way.” Ren said.    
  
“Ain’t that the truth.” Morgana said, “This way.”   
  
Morgana pushed open a nearby door, unfortunately there happened to be a guard on the other side of it.   
  
“Shit, what do we do?” Ren said quietly.   
  
“It hasn’t seen us, looks like it’s time for combat training. Sneak up on that thing, and rip its mask off.” Morgana replied.   
  
Ren felt confused about what exactly he should be doing at first, but eventually something clicked in his head. He started moving towards the guard without even thinking, he jumped on the guard and ripped its mask off just like Morgana said. The guards armor vanished, and it transformed into what seemed like a couple fairy-like creatures.   
  
“What is that thing?” Ren said.   
  
“This is the cognition’s true self, let’s take it down!” Morgana called out, summoning Zorro to her side. Ren nodded and summoned Arsene.   
  
“Cleave!” Ren called out, and Arsene slashed the fairy being, causing it to burst into goo.   
  
“One down, one to go.” Morgana said, “Garu!”   
  
The other fairy being was blown to smithereens as well.   
  
“Simple stuff ey?” Morgana said, feeling proud. “You’re a fast learner. You definitely fit for this.”   
  
Ren walked towards a nearby door and peeked through it, “Coast is clear for now, let’s get moving.”   
  
The two found their way into what seemed like a basement, with a few guard patrols going back and forth.   
  
“Let’s play this smart, we make too much noise and we’ll have them all over us.” Morgana said.   
  
Ren nodded, and the two waited until one of the guards was isolated. Ren revealed their true form once again, and Morgana and him made quick work of it. One of the others nearby came to check what the noise was, but through the strategic use of cover, Ren managed to get the drop on that one too.   
  
“Now it’s time for another lesson, the hold-up.” Morgana said, pointing her slingshot at the prone fairy. “You can threaten these things for money or items you might need.”   
  
“You’re the intruders King Kamoshida was talking about? It can’t get worse than this, what’re you going to do with me?!” the fairy said.   
  
“I-if you don’t want us to kill you..” Ren said, trying to sound intimidating “You’ll hand over something useful.”   
  
  
“You mean if I give you some money or something, you’ll let me live?” the fairy said.   
  
The fairy went through the pockets of her one piece, but couldn’t find anything. “Oh no, I usually have something but this was so sudden…”   
  
“Well this wasn’t how I was expecting it to go. Well...I guess you’ll be going to hell then.” Morgana said.   
  
“W-wait!” the fairy said “Please! Don’t kill me! Can’t you just let me go?!”   
  
“Sorry, but we’re in a hurry.” Morgana said, preparing to deal the killing blow.   
  
“Wait.” Ren said, stopping Morgana in her tracks. “This isn’t right. We can’t just kill her.”   
  
“It’s a Shadow, there’s tons of beings like her in this Palace, if we let her go she’ll call the guards on us.” Morgana said, trying to reason with Ren.   
  
“I-I won’t! I swear, please just let me live.” the fairy was on her knees begging at this point.   
  
Ren shook his head at Morgana. “Fine. You can go.”   
  
“R-really?” the fairy said, “Thank you, thank you so much!”   
  
The fairy flew up, and flew towards Ren. “You’re so sweet. Thank you.”   
  
“Err...my pleasure Miss...umm…” Ren said, not knowing what to say to the girl.   
  
The fairy began to shimmer slightly, “I feel..different! Something’s happening!”   
  
“What the-?!” Morgana exclaimed, confused at the sight before her.   
  
“I remember now! I don’t belong just to King Kamoshida...I’m an existence that drifts about in the sea of humanity’s souls… My real name is…”Pixie”” the fairy said, growing more and more excited. “I am Pixie! From now on, I’ll live on inside your heart!”   
  
Pixie shimerred more and more, before turning into what looked like a copy of Ren’s mask. The mask shot forward, and disappeared into Ren’s mask.   
  
“What...what the hell?! What was that?! I’ve never seen something like that happen before!” Morgana exclaimed.   
  
“I...I don’t know either. But I feel a bit...different.” Ren said.   
  
“HEY! STOP RIGHT THERE!” the two heard a voice yell, they turned and saw another guard appear.  The guard came charging towards them, which Ren and Morgana barely dodged. Ren felt something shift in his mind, a new name popped into it.   
  
“Pixie!” Ren called out, and the fairy appeared and fired a lightning attack at the guard, destroying it.   
  
“Whoa! Is that the Shadow from earlier?!” Morgana said. “Don’t tell me...you took on the Shadow’s appearance and power as a Persona?!”   
  
“I...I guess so.” Ren said.   
  
“Well...it seems there’s certainly more to you than meets the eye.” Morgana said.


	7. Sports Festival

_Two Days Later_  
  
April 13th and the school was abuzz with activity in preparation for the Sports Festival.  Granted most of the students weren’t particularly excited about the day itself, aside from the members of the various Spring sport teams such as the Track Team and Volleyball Club.  As for the rest, they were mostly just enjoying the chance to get out of class for the day even if it meant having to sit through the events. As Ren had walked to school he had overheard some of the students actually sounding concerned about the Volleyball Club.  
  
“ _At least some people are beginning to notice._ ” Ren thought, “ _Guess there’s a bright spot to everything_ .”  
  
The previous day had gone pretty well, Morgana and him spent a fair amount of time experimenting with his new abilities. He had managed to acquire a fair amount of new Personas. They weren't exactly very strong, but it was nice to have developed such an extensive amount of abilities. Unfortunately, the actual investigation of Kamoshida’s Palace had stalled quite a bit, despite constant effort by both him and Morgana. They had managed to find their way to some kind of library, but there was apparently some kind of security gate that required a password to get past. A lot of personal details that neither he nor Morgana knew.

 

Things on the school front hadn't been any better. Take Mishima for example, it had seemed like the class rep was putting in a lot more effort to avoid him.  Despite Ren’s continued insistence that he wouldn’t force Mishima to go back into the Palace, nor put him in danger by “trying to turn him into a spy to be used against Kamoshida”, he just wouldn’t give him the time of day.  It was a real shame, mostly because Ren admittedly felt a bit isolated in this school. Between the rumors surrounding him thanks to his criminal record, not to mention his antics on the first day, people just seemed content giving him the cold shoulder and not even giving him the time of day. There were times when Ren just felt like skipping class to explore the Palace, but he had promised Sojiro he wouldn’t get in anymore trouble.  There was that girl, Shiho, but she seemed just as withdrawn as Mishima had been with him thanks to their involvement with Volleyball.

It irked Ren to see them put themselves through hell for that monster of a man, irked him to see all of them put themselves through hell.  He had hoped to convince at least one or two members to stand up to Kamoshida, but every person he had talked to had given him the same answers whenever he asked about the subject as Mishima had. And that was the few that even answered his questioning at all.  
  
Speaking of Kamoshida, Ren watched the man and some of the other teachers playing some of the students with vague disinterest.  The adults were dominating of course, with the bastard on their team how couldn’t they? What made Ren angry though was that people were cheering him beating on the students, and unfortunately Mishima in particular, with his hits.  The boy was covered in welts and bruises and, from Ren’s point of view, struggling to even stand.  
  
“Pretty boring right?” Ren heard a voice from beside him say.  
  
At first Ren didn’t respond, being pretty sure that whoever was talking was talking to someone else.  
  
“Hey, it’s rude to ignore people ya know,” Ren heard the person say again.  
  
Ren turned to his left and saw a dude in black hair and a track uniform was looking at him expectingly.  
  
“Oh um sorry, I wasn’t sure if you were talking to me.” Ren said in response.  
  
“It’s alright man. Given how people have been treating ya the past couple days, I’m not surprised you didn’t respond at first.” the track kid said with a smile.  
  
“You know me?” Ren said with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“Not too hard to pick out the legendary “Delinquent Transfer Student”,” the track kid said while doing air quotes, “Especially considering everyone else is staying pretty far away from you. I’m surprised you’re sticking around to watch this crap.”  
   
“Uh...yeah, it’s not exactly my definition of fun.” Ren said in response.

  
“I wouldn’t imagine watching that asshole beat people up is fun for anyone, except for some of the idiots in the stands.” the track kid said, “I just wish we could skip today and just get to the relay races tomorrow. At least that’s a bit of fun for everyone. All this is is just the chance for King Kamoshida to boost his ego.”  
  
“Yo Sakamoto! Coach said he needed your help for setup for tomorrow,” another person called out.  
  
“Yeah yeah, I’m coming,” the track kid said before turning back towards Ren, “Take it easy man.”  
  
“Why doesn’t anyone stop this,” Ren said more to himself than anyone else, not hearing what the track kid said.  
  
“No one has the guts to go up against the King I guess,” the track kid replied, before leaving Ren to sit there and stew.

Ren had had enough, he was done fighting in secret and on the sidelines. It was time to send a message, to show this son of a bitch that there was someone who wasn’t scared of him. With newfound determination, he decided to get up and talk to the ref of the game.  
  
“Excuse me sir,” Ren said to the ref.  
  
“Hmm, what is it kid?” the ref responded.  
  
“Hey Amamiya, quit holding up the game!”  
  
“Yeah, sit down ya delinquent!”  
  
Ren ignored the crowds jeers and continued, “I’m rather concerned for my friend Yuuki’s health due to the amount of hits he’s received, would it be alright if I substituted in for him this round?”  
  
“I don’t see why not, Yuuki Mishima of Class 2-D head over to the stands to rest,” the ref yelled, shaking the poor boy out of his reverie.  
  
His eyes met Ren’s for a moment, before they averted yet again as he slowly walked off the court to sit down. Ren stepped onto the court, heading over to talk to his new teammates.  
  
“You even play Volleyball new kid?” one of the older kids said.  
  
“A bit back at my old school, I know enough to get by,” Ren said with a smile and a shrug.  
  
“Tch...not like it matters since we’re down by so much, just take a front guard position and try to set the ball for the rest of us,” the same kid said.  
  
Ren did as he was told and took up a position right in front of Kamoshida.  
  
“I’m quite surprised, I didn’t think you had an interest in Volleyball. It’s too bad we’re not taking new members right now, not that it really matters since you don’t qualify since we have a strict discipline policy,” Kamoshida said to him.  
  
“Yeah well, let me know if you ever change your mind or if a spot opens up when you wind up putting one of the members in a hospital bed,” Ren said in cold, monotonic reply.  
  
“Huh? What’re you?” Kamoshida tried to say before the other members of his team told him to hurry up and get into position.  
  
Surprisingly as the game started, Ren had proved to be more adept at Volleyball than most thought.  His training in the Metaverse had done wonders for his reflexes and strength, and he actually returned quite a bit of hits over the net.  Ren had taken a couple hits from Kamoshida, but each time it happened he would still stand on his feet and give the man a cocky smile. Seeing Kamoshida getting angrier and angrier made this whole thing extra sweet in his mind.  Some of the students in the crowd had stopped cheering and had begun murmerring quietly to themselves about this new development about the delinquent kid. The kids were still behind the adults, but the gap was nowhere near as wide as it had been before.  To Ren’s surprise, some of the other kids on the team had congratulated him about the whole thing and had praised his skills. There was a small pause for the teams to readjust their lineup, during which Ren and Kamoshida continued their staredown from before.  Kamoshida’s anger was fully visible in his body language, while Ren continued to just have the same cocky smile on his face.  
  
“You have more skills than I thought, maybe I should reconsider my decision on you and let you join the squad.  Regardless of your record of course,” Kamoshida with a forced smile on his face.

 

“Glad to see I’ve managed to impress a former pro, but I think I’ll pass. If I can manage to close the gap this efficiently just by myself, I’d have to say your coaching skills must not be up to scratch,” Ren said in reply.  
  
“What the hell did you just say brat?” Kamoshida said, dropping the forced cheer.  
  
“Not particularly fun when the punching bag punches back eh? Then again I’m not surprised, gotta do something to make yourself feel like less of a washout I suppose,” Ren continued.  
  
If Kamoshida had looked mad before, he looked full on furious at that moment.  Before he could fire back a retort however, Ren was switched positions with one of the others, placing him in the back.  The last rally of the match started with strong performances from both sides, causing it to go for quite a bit. Eventually however one of the teachers provided a set for Kamoshida, which he decided to use to his advantage and put an end to this mouthy delinquent. He spiked the ball with all his might at Ren, hitting him full in the face.  There was a loud crunch as Ren’s glasses bent inwards and flew off his face, landing somewhere nearby.

Kamoshida had to work extra hard to suppress a grin from appearing, until he noticed that Ren was still standing.  Said person then gave him the biggest glare he had ever received in his life. The chill, the quiet fury, the sheer killing intent flowing out of that one look almost floored him.  To the point where he just stood there stunned for a few moments as the other members of the students team rushed to check on him. The ref blew his whistle and yelled at Ren to get off the field and report to the nurse. Ren had no choice but to comply, though he was left satisfied with the look he saw on Kamoshida’s face.

* * *

  
  
Mishima watched the whole scene with a mix of shock, horror and a bit of envy. Eventually the game was restarted with another substitute, but Mishima’s mind was turning too much to pay attention. He couldn’t help but overhear some of what the other people were saying however.  
  
“ _The transfer kid took Kamoshida’s gold medal spike like it was nothing”_  
  
_“He had Kamoshida on the ropes, Coach probably thought Amamiya was gonna murder him or something.”_  
_  
_ “Dude showed no fear, then again considering his reputation are we really surprised?”

 _“He just got lucky, that crazy guy still doesn’t deserve to be here”_  
  
Eventually he grew sick and tired of hearing it, and decided to head to the nurse’s office to check up on Ren. Luckily with everyone involved in the sports festival it was easy to make his way through the school undetected.

Upon walking into the nurse's office, he saw Ren talking to the nurse and taking some medicine.

Ren saw him walk in, and he gave a half-hearted wave. "Hey there."

"...Hey." Mishima said while crossing his arms. "That was... certainly something that you did."

"Certainly was." Ren replied simply.  
  
"Pissing him off, you know what he'll do to you for that? You know what he'll do to me and the others?" Mishima exclaimed, getting into Ren's face.  
  
"I'm guessing nothing he isn't already doing." Ren said simply.  
  
Mishima sputtered at this, "W-well...if you know, why would you purposefully antagonize him? I told you how things work around here, I told you it was pointless to piss him off."  
  
"Because I'm sick of the way things work around here maybe? Maybe I thought that the King needed to be shown a lesson from a peasant?" Ren answered.  
  
"W-would you stop that?! And h-how exactly did you pull all that off? You took his spikes like they were nothing. How?" Mishima said.

"It's complicated." Ren replied back. "Let's just say my time in the castle has been paying off."  
  
"The castle, again? You're still going in there? After what happened the first time? Are you trying to get killed, and what just to p-prove a point to me and everyone else?" Mishima fired back.  
  
"I don't know what point you could be talking about." Ren answered.  
  
"That we can fight back? That the "King" isn't so strong?" Mishima said, with airquotes around King. "Well I'm sorry we're not a rebellious fighting force, but I wouldn't expect you to understand. We're not delinquents like you."  
  
"And why do you care so much? If you see my attempts as fruitless than why are you bothering to chew me out over them?Let me try, let me fail, let me die. It doesn't affect you or anyone else in any way." Ren fired back in a more hostile tone.  
  
"I-I won't do that! I'm not a monster!" Mishima yelled at him. 

  
"So you'll tell me to stop because I could get hurt but you don't do the same when Kamoshida does it to your teammates?" Ren said.  
  
"Di...That's different! I'm saying you shouldn't throw your life away! I'm saying it's not worth it! I've told you that proving the abuse does nothing because-" Mishima started to say before Ren cut in.  
  
"Because everyone knows and they just let it happen. I remember the conversation." Ren said.  
  
"Then why are you doing it then?!" MIshima exclaimed "You've heard what people have been saying, you've heard them all! They've given you shit day in and day out ever since you got here, and you...you're still going to go back into that...castle and possibly get yourself killed?! Why?! What have we done to earn your help?! Why are you even bothering?!"

* * *

_The previous day_

"What do you mean you don't know the year he started teaching here?!" Morgana exclaimed.  
  
"Don't get mad at me! I haven't even been at this school for a week, I barely know anyone in my own class!" Ren fired back before browsing the bookshelves looking for something to help him. "Maybe there's some details in some of these books."  
  
"See if you can also find his birthday and the year of his greatest accomplishment, whatever that is." Morgana said as she browsed the lower shelves.   
  
"None of these have any details about when he started here. I think I found his greatest accomplishment though. There's a lot of references to the year 2004." Ren said, reading through the book.  
  
"Seems like a real arbitrary number, any details about the accomplishment itself in case it comes up later?" Morgana said.  
  
"Given how we've had to use medals to get through a few statues, I'm guessing he won some big sports competition. 2004 was one of the years of the Summer Olympics, maybe he competed and won a medal there." Ren said, putting the book back.  
  
"Save that information for later then." Morgana said, before she paused. "Say...do you mind answering a question?"  
  
"Sure, what do you need to know?" Ren said.  
  
"You don't know any details about this man, yet you so readily agreed to help me take him down? I get that you seem like the altruistic sort, and I get that the guy is screwed up, but you don't even have a horse to back in this race. Why are you so dead set on taking him down? I mean...I have my reasons, the guy tortured me in his dungeons for who knows how long. But this place is a death trap so...what exactly do you get out of this?"

* * *

"Because if I don't, who will?" Ren answered him, remembering the answer he had given Morgana to a similar question.  
  
"What do you-" Mishima started to say.  
  
"No one here even wants to go against Kamoshida. You said so yourself, everyone knows the details about what you guys are going through but they just ignore it. And you were right, everyone I asked about what he was doing gave me the exact same answers you did. That I should just ignore it or that I didn't understand how things work here. But that's the thing...I can't understand. And it's because I can't that I go in there every day I can. It wouldn't be right if I just kept my head down if there was something I could do about it." Ren said. "I mean...half the reason I'm even going here to begin with is because of that attitude but still."   
  
"Wait, what do you mean?" Mishima questioned.  
  
Ren let out a sigh and said, "I know that my record is rather public, but was it ever said exactly the circumstances surrounding it?"  
  
"No...just that you were arrested and charged with assault." Mishima said, avoiding Ren's gaze.  
  
"A while ago, back when I still lived in my hometown...I was walking home one night from my part-time job. I started school the next day so I asked to head home early. While I was walking home...I saw a drunk man trying to force himself on a woman." Ren started explaining. "I could have just stayed out of it, hell I've had more than enough people telling me I should have just stayed out of it. But...I didn't. I pulled the woman away, the guy fell over and busted his head, and he had me arrested because apparently he was some big politician. I stuck my nose where it didn't belong and wound up punished for it, even the lady I thought I saved was forced into helping the guy's case against me. But...I'd do the same thing in an instant because I would hate myself if I didn't. You keep telling me it doesn't matter, that it's all meaningless but it's not to me. I see people like you, people like Suzui, people like that girl Takamaki who cringes at the sight of Kamoshida in the halls, all of you suffering under this man and it hurts. It hurts walking through the halls and seeing more people covered in bandages than at a hospital. It hurts seeing everybody so broken, so beaten down by everything that man is doing. But most of all...it hurts to see people give up the fight before it's even started."  
  
Ren sat down on the nearby bed, "I've heard people say that all they have to do is make it to graduation and then they'll be out. But they don't understand that while it'll be over for them, it'll just continue on to the next group of kids that come here. The cycle will never end."  
  
  
Ren sat up again and started walking out the door, pausing when he got to the doorway. "I don't care what they think of me. If they want to see me as a delinquent, as someone to be isolated and ignored, they can if they want to. Even if they hate my guts for the entire year I have to spend here, it'll be worth it to me to help their lives and make them better and the lives of everyone that comes to this school after better. By taking down a corrupt man who thinks that just because he's an adult with power. It's not an easy thing to do....but it is the right thing. You, Suzui, you both need help and even if you guys aren't my friends....I don't want you guys to suffer."  
  
  
Ren left the room and left Mishima standing in silence as the full weight of everything that Ren had said settled on the both of them. Ren wasn't sure what some of those things he said came from, but it felt good to get it all out in the open.  Mishima meanwhile was stunned. He had never seen someone at this school with such fervor, someone so willing to stick their neck out for others. It...utterly floored him. He hadn't expected Ren to be so passionate about this, even after everything the rumor mill had been doing to him.

* * *

Ren sat up on the rooftop and watched the clouds go by, thankful for being excused from the whole event. He wondered how the rally was turning out, what people were saying about him.  Odds were they were talking about how the delinquent refused to be put in his place by the Coach, but honestly he didn't care much.  This whole day was rough, and the migraines he had been suffering still hadn't abated by a whole lot thanks to the volleyball to the head he had gotten.    
  
"Quite the speech you gave." Ren heard a voice say, causing him to jump up in surprise. The roof was closed off to students, and he didn't want to get caught.  
  
"I WASN'T PLANNING TO STAY UP HERE I WAS JUST GRABBING SOMETHING MY FRIEND LEFT UP HERE!" he yelled in surprise.  
  
"Geez, so you're just as paranoid in the real world too huh?" he heard the voice say again, looking around he eventually saw a black tabby cat with blood red eyes.   
  
"What in the..." Ren said.  
  
"Geez, don't you recognize me frizzy hair?" the cat said. "Then again given the physical change..."  
  
"M-morgana?" Ren said, "What...how...you're here...y-you're a cat!"  
  
"Grrrr I'm not a cat! This is just what happened when I came into this world! I don't know why!" Morgana snapped.  
  
Ren picked up Morgana by her new body and inspected her.  
  
"Hey ease up on the lifting!" Morgana said, squirming his hands.  
  
"Sorry...you're just really cute like this." Ren confessed, scritching behind her ear.  
  
"Nyahhhh~" Morgana said, enjoying it before composing herself and yelling, "STOP DOING THAT!"  
  
  
"Sorry." Ren replied, putting her back on the ground. "How...how exactly are you here? Did something happen in the Palace?"  
  
"Kind of...the heat there was getting intense, and...I was concerned about your safety because of your newbie nature, so I thought I'd find you just in case." Morgana said, strutting about. Ren crossed his arms at what she was saying before Morgana sighed and relented. " I was running out of places to hide. I tried to hide in one of the safe rooms but the guard patrols were getting to intense for me to get to them by myself. I got...nervous so I popped out for a bit to let the heat die down. Happy?"  
  
"Decently enough I guess..." Ren said, sitting down and pulling out his leftover bread from lunch and offering it to the cat who munched on it voraciously.  
  
"Mmm, it's been a while since I've had decent food." Morgana said appreciatively. "Living off of stolen stuff from the castle kitchen wasn't easy considering Kamoshida eats nothing but fruit and protein shakes."  
  
"On the bright side you'd build up some decent muscle mass between that and fighting the guards I guess." Ren joked.  
  
"...Used to me being here already? I would've thought you'd be more freaked out for longer." Morgana said.  
  
"I have a team of monsters who live in my body, an app that lets me go to an alternate reality, and I've spent time around you already. A talking cat seems...benign by comparison." Ren said.  
  
Morgana finished up the leftover bread with a smile. "Now then newbie, ready for another day of training and exploration?"  
  
"Now? School's still going on, the volleyball rally should be going on for another hour." Ren said, looking at his phone for the time.  
  
"Geez, you humans and your "responsibilities". Fine, I'm happy to stick around until you're ready to go." Morgana said, lazing about on the roof. "To pass the time let's do a new lesson for the day, codenames."  
  
  
"Codenames?" Ren said, quirking an eyebrow.  
  
"We probably should've done this already." Morgana said. "But it's more a...precautionary measure than anything."  
  
"Why do we need codenames, it's not like I need to hide my identity? Shadow Kamoshida already knows who I am." Ren said.  
  
"That's the thing though, what kind of stupid phantom thief would use their real name while stealing stuff!? I'm sure as heck ain't down for that!" Morgana said. "Also we have no clue what kind of effect shouting our real names will have on the palace. For all we know, say your name enough times and the real Kamoshida might become paranoid about you."  
  
"I'd say he kind of is already." Ren said sarcastically.  
  
"Look...just, come up with something. I'll help you if need it too." Morgana said. "What about...Joker?"  
  
"Joker?" Ren questioned.  
  
"It makes sense, you're the trump card of the two of us in terms of combat strength. Zorro might be strong, but you have a veritable arsenal in your head." Morgana explained. "Plus, haven't you ever heard the expression "Jokers Wild"?"  
  
"Not really an expression, more a statement." Ren interrupted.  
  
"Point being, again your arsenal is wild and varied." Morgana said.  
  
"...I guess I like it. It does sound kind of cool. The Legendary Phantom Thief Joker and his sidekick Tabby." Ren said jokingly.  
  
"GRRRR You're the sidekick!" Morgana yelled, making a swipe at him.  
  
Ren let out a bit of a laugh, "So...what's your codename?"  
  
"Mine?  I don't know..." Morgana said, "I'm not even sure if I need one since I don't have any presence in the real world."  
  
"What happened to "what kind of stupid phantom thief would use their real name while stealing stuff"?" Ren said mockingly. "if you can't think of one, you can be Tabby."  
  
"I'M NOT GOING TO BE CALLED TABBY! I'M NOT A CAT!" Morgana once again exclaimed, her case not being helped given her current form.  
  
"Fine...what about...Mona?" Ren said. "It's a shortening of your name, and it doesn't have anything to do with cats."  
  
"...Alright I guess." Morgana said, lying back down. "So for now on, we're Joker and Mona. Memorize that, because the next time we go into the Metaverse that's the only thing we're going to refer to each other by. Got that?"  
  
  
"Joker and Mona huh?" Ren said, considering it. "I guess I like the sound of that. I'd prefer Tabby though."  
  
"I'm not a-" Morgana started to raise her voice before Ren starting scratching her ears again, silencing her.  
  
" _I gotta remember this_." Ren thought.

* * *

Mishima listened to Kamoshida grouse about Ren's behavior, trying his best not to crinkle his nose. He was used to hearing it by this point, whenever Kamoshida was mad he did this for hours. The worst days he pulled someone into his office and...he didn't even want to think about it. There was just dread in the air amongst the boys, one that...Mishima found he didn't even share.  In fact...there was a part of him that almost wanted to volunteer just to get this crap over with. To be the lightning rod, just like....always. That was his life, to be the person people beat up on to make themselves feel better. Something though, something felt different.  He wasn't dreading, he wasn't scared, he was just annoyed.  Even when the Coach got up in his face and yelled at him for letting Ren take his place, he didn't even react. Didn't cringe, didn't do anything but stare. Was it all worth it in the end, the threats to make him a second stringer, force him to do extra training? What could Kamoshida do to him that he hadn't already?  
  
"Hey, Mishima! I'm talking to you!" Kamoshida yelled "You let that damn delinquent make me look bad!"  
  
"Well maybe you're getting rusty." Mishima said without even thinking.  
  
All the boys cringed simultaneously, watching and waiting to see what would happen next.  
  
"What did you just say?" Kamoshida said in a dangerous tone.  
  
"I said...if someone with no formal training could do so well against you...maybe you should join us for practice coach." Mishima said with a bit more steel.  
  
Kamoshida laughed for a moment, a very dangerous laugh. He picked up a volleyball and threw it right at Mishima's gut.  
  
"Got anything to say now?" Kamoshida said.  
  
Mishima let out a grunt, "I think your serve needs work. And I think I should be leaving."  
  
"Where do you think you're going, practice isn't over." Kamoshida said. "And if you want to maintain your place, I suggest you stay later for extra training."  
  
"Well you know what, I don't think I want to maintain my place." Mishima said, walking off and grabbing his bag.   
  
"You...you listen to me you little shit, you walk out the door you're off the team for good! You hear me!? You leave, I'll make your life hell!" Kamoshida shouted out.  
  
Mishima looked back for a moment before laughing, "Since when did you not?"

* * *

  
  
"So 2004 for the biggest success, 2013 for the year he started teaching, only thing I couldn't get from people was his birthday." Ren whispered as he and Morgana snuck through the Palace. Patrols had been tighter than before, clearly Kamoshida didn't like the fact that the two of them were beating the guards that had been sent out.  
  
  
"At the very least we've got more than we did before, if we search the library a bit longer we should be able to find it eventually." Morgana whispered back.  
  
"But how? Most of the damn things are just fluff pieces about him and his..." Ren said before shuddering "Conquests."  
  
"I know it's disgusting, but we need to get past that door. And look on the bright side, at least you didn't get the picture books." Morgana responded, shuddering herself.  
  
"Crap crap crap!" Ren said out loud.  
  
An entire army of guards was surrounding the only entrance to the basement, there was no chance that they could get past them and they had no place to lure them away to.   
  
"What are we going to do? We can't take all of them on!" Ren said, peering around the corner.  
  
"Is there anything we can do to distract them?" Morgana asked, already knowing the answer. "Maybe I could throw a smoke bomb and we could sneak past?"  
  
"Obscuring their vision won't stop them from coming after u....wait you have smoke bombs?" Ren asked.  
  
"Well...yeah. Never know when you might need em, speaking of which here have a couple." Morgana said, throwing him a few pellets from her pockets.  
  
  
"Gee...thanks." Ren said, pocketing them. "Now how do we fix this issue?"  
  
"I know this place inside and out, I know a few places to hide. Why don't I lure them away, and you can sneak in?" Morgana said.  
  
"I'm not gonna make you push yourself in danger like that, what if you get caught?" Ren said, looking concerned.  
  
"Aww how cute, you think you have a choice in the matter." Morgana said in a condescending tone. "Get ready, get set, go!"  
  
"Wait what?!" Ren yelled out, but before he could get another chance to interject Morgana jumped out of their hiding space and started breaking windows with her slingshot.  
  
"Hey!" one of the guards said. "Stop right there!"  
  
  
The guard came charging at Morgana, but she used Zorro to blast it back. The other guards noticed the commotion and ran after Morgana.  
  
"Nyehehe! Can't catch me!" Morgana teased, running as fast as her legs could carry her and leading the guards away.  
  
"....Shit." Ren groused. "Idiot cat."  
  
With the entrance exposed, Ren sneaked his way into the halls to the library.  
  
"Come on, come on..." Ren said, hoping that he didn't see anymore guards along the way. Eventually he found his way in, and began quickly browsing the shelves, looking for the right book.    
  
"Guide To A Winning Smile, How To Train Your Mediocre Sports Team, 101 Best Pickup Lines...dammit! You'd think that the dude so high on himself he has hundreds of books about himself that he'd have at least one book about his childhood or an autobiography!" Ren said, basically pulling stuff off the shelves and throwing on the floor at this point. "What is his fucking birthdate!?"  
  
  
"The King's Book?" Ren said, picking up the book from the shelf and feeling a bit of familiarity about it. His senses picked up that whatever this book was, it was important. Unfortunately Ren couldn't open the book, so he settled on putting it in his coat. "Come on, come on...there History Of The King!"  
  
Ren opened it excitedly, only to find the words _"And Kamoshida descended from the heavens-"_ which caused him to throw the book at the wall in frustration. This was getting him nowhere.  
  
"I just need to know his goddamn birthday!" Ren yelled out.  
  
"Hey! Who's there!" Ren heard nearby. Ren heard what sounded like four guards running into the library hallway.  
  
"Shit." Ren said quietly, hiding behind one of the bookcases.  
  
  
"Pain the ass intruders!" one of the guards.  
  
"We've already got one of them, we just need to find the other one. King Kamoshida is sure to give us a reward. And once we do, we take him to the Castle's entryway for the execution." the other said.  
  
"Dammit Mona." Ren said under his breath.  
  
"You hear something?" the third guard said.   
  
Ren shut his mouth and tried his best not to make any noise, not even breathing.  
  
"Check out the room there, someone vandalized the library!" the second guard said.  
  
"That other intruder is here, stick together and find him." the fourth guard said. Ren heard them approaching, getting closer and closer. He didn't think he was strong enough to take on four of them himself. He needed a plan, he needed something fast.  
  
_"Come on think, think."_ Ren said in his mind. " _Wait...the smoke pellets._ "  
  
  
Ren pulled one of them out of his pocket.  
  
" _Okay...just....how to use this?"_ Ren thought, running the pellet in his fingers.  _"Dammit, why didn't Morgana tell me how to use it?_ "  
  
  
He heard the guards getting close, he had maybe a split second.  
  
_"To hell with it_." Ren thought, as he covered his mouth with one hand and threw the pellet onto the ground. A huge cloud of smoke was emitted, causing an uproar amongst the guards.  
  
"Can't see!" Ren heard one of them say, Ren didn't wait for any other indication and ran. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, he felt something in the air change as if the Palace itself knew he was there and was trying to stop him. Shadows would come around at random, Ren couldn't take care of them so he just kept running. He had to get to the entryway before Kamoshida hurt Morgana, if he didn't already.  Through the basement, into the meeting room, just one more hallway and...ohhh no.  
  
Morgana was being held by one of the guards, trying to struggle out of its grip.  
  
"I should've executed you when I had the chance." Ren heard a voice say. From the shadows, Ren saw Shadow Kamoshida standing at the top of the stairs.  
  
"Let me go you piece of shit!" Morgana yelled.  
  
"Now where's the other one, that damn delinquent?" Shadow Kamoshida said.  
  
"Dunno what you're talking about, though I'm surprised it took you this long to find me this time. Your guards must be losing their touch." Morgana joked.  
  
Kamoshida grew angry at that, and snapped his fingers. The guard began pulling Morgana's arms apart, causing the cat to scream in pain.  
  
"Where is that damn delinquent?" Shadow Kamoshida asked again.  
  
"Dunno...I think he left this place already. Probably bailed on me now that I taught him all I know, wouldn't be a surprise given our line of work." Morgana said.  
  
  
Kamoshida got a toothy grin, "Well if that's the case, maybe I should skin you and send a message to him the next time he decides to come here."  
  
  
Morgana let out an audible gulp as one of the guards pointed a sword at her throat. "W-Well then..."  
  
Ren had heard enough, he grabbed one of the smoke pellets and took a deep breath. With a bit of prayer, he tossed it with all his might, and lucky for him it impacted against one of the guards and exploded.   
  
"What the hell?!" Ren heard Kamoshida say, but he was already running on adrenaline by this point.  
  
"Arsene!" Ren called out, blasting the guard holding Morgana.  
  
"Come on let's go!" Ren said, picking her up.  
  
"Must be getting rusty, catching me during a distraction play." Morgana joked. "And I guess I owe you my life twice over now."  
  
"We'll discuss it once we're out...of....here..." Ren said, as he saw several more guards appear and block the exit.  
  
"One of my guard patrols reported you had smoke, I didn't think you'd be dumb enough to reveal yourself." Kamoshida said smugly.  
  
"Looks like we're fighting our way out." Morgana said. "Though if we had a few more people with us..."  
  
"We'll just have to try our best then." Ren said.  
  
Shadows popped up all over the place and Ren and Morgana tried their damndest. Firing off curse blasts and wind gusts left and right, slicing and dicing with knives. But they just kept coming and coming and eventually Ren was beginning to feel drained. Eventually one of the guards managed to knock him down, and more of them beat him more and more.  
  
"Ar...Ar..." Ren tried to call out, but a shield slammed down on him, and completely knocked the wind out of him. The guard had him pinned, and Ren was too exhausted to summon anymore. He was drained, and before too long Morgana went down too.  
  
Shadow Kamoshida gave a small chuckle. "You managed to take care of some of my forces that's for sure, but I knew you two would fall at the final hurdle."  
  
He slammed his foot down on Morgana, causing her to let out a yelp. "You never stood a chance against the King, and now...now it's time I deal with you for good. Guards...end them!"  
  
The guard raised his sword, ready to bring it down on Ren's neck.  
  
" _Come on....Ar...sene."_ Ren tried to force the words out of his mouth but he couldn't. He...he messed up...  
  
"Joker....it's not your fault." he heard Morgana struggle to say.  
  
  
Ren closed his eyes and waited for the end, but just as he felt the sword about to touch his neck he heard a loud voice call out.  
  
"STOP!"  
  


* * *

 


	8. Mishima's Awakening

Mishima wasn’t sure what had possessed him to call out like that.  All he knew is that he regretted it immensely now that the guards had turned their attention to him.  
  
“Well well, I was wondering if you’d ever have the guts to try to defy me again. And after your betrayal today...do I need to make an example of you to get the point across?” Shadow Kamoshida said.  
  
“That’s––That’s enough.  You can do whatever you want to me, just let them both go,” Mishima said shakily.  
  
“No! Mishima, you have to get out of here now,” Ren yelled before crying out in pain from being struck by one of the guards.  
  
“Amamiya!”  
  
“You’re in no position to bargain, Jester; you have nothing I could possibly want,” Kamoshida said, “I bet you just came here on a whim, wanting to watch these idiots try to take me down because you don’t have the guts to do it yourself.”  
  
“That’s not true, and….i-if you don’t let them go, I’ll go public with what you’ve done.  I’ll tell everybody about what a real monster you are,” Mishima tried to say with conviction, for what little he could muster.  
  
“Oh?  And who will listen to you, of all people?” Shadow Kamoshida sneered at Mishima, “You’re nothing but a second stringer, anything you say will just come off as being jealous about not being part of the main team.  And if you do manage to find someone who listens, who will even care? The principal and the parents don’t care as long as I get results. Even the track coach keeps quiet because he knows it’ll cost him his job if he doesn’t.  This school is in the palm of my hand, and you can’t wrench control of it from me.”  
  
“Maybe not... but I can try,” Mishima said, before pulling out a model pistol from his back pocket and pointing it at Shadow Kamoshida.  
  
“Where’d the heck did he get that?!” Morgana asked in surprise.  
  
“Oh isn’t this a laugh, the Jester wishes to become King,” one of the guards said.  
  
“It’s pathetic, is what it is,” one of the others chimed in.  
  
“Was this supposed to be your big intimidation play? Pointing a gun at me and expecting me to cave?  How idiotic,” said Shadow Kamoshida.  
  
“Get away from my friends, o-or else I’ll take your king down right here and now,” said Mishima, not looking away from Kamoshida.  
  
“I know for a fact that you won’t fire that thing. You don’t have the guts,” Shadow Kamoshida continued, “You of all people trying to play the hero, after the things you’ve done for me? I wonder if the transfer student would enjoy knowing that you were the one who exposed his record on my orders.”  
  
“You...you did what?” Ren looked at Mishima with betrayal in his eyes.  
  
“It was hilarious watching you walk around the school with such a broken spirit at first.  A delinquent like you doesn’t belong in my school. No threat to my rule does. And Mishima here is the one that set it all into motion,” said Shadow Kamoshida.  
  
“Is he telling the truth?” Ren said, looking at Mishima.  
  
“He is,” Mishima answered solemnly, letting his eyes drop for a moment, “I was the one who leaked your record.  Even if I was forced to do it, it was still my fault for not fighting back. It’s always been, ever since I joined the volleyball team.  I sat by and did nothing to protect my teammates because I was too afraid of being the one getting hurt. Too afraid to being on the receiving end of everything but under too much pressure to leave it all behind me.  I did as I was told because….because I was always afraid.”  
  
Mishima’s eyes then refocused, “But then I met you, and you reached out to me in a way no one else has ever tried.  Even when I tried to push you away, you still kept on trying to protect me and others. And that made my guilt about the whole thing worse.  Each time I heard a rough comment or some bad rumor about you, it would always come back to the fact that it wouldn’t be happening without my causing it.  So go ahead: if you want to hate me, then you have that right. But I can’t stand idle anymore, not when someone who’s fighting to save me and others is in danger.”  
  
“Well isn’t that just precious.  But it still doesn’t change the fact that you’ll never beat me. Guards, execute these interlopers and then set your sights on––”

 

A loud bang ricocheted through the room, cutting off Shadow Kamoshida’s orders.   He clutched his shoulder in surprise, letting out a shriek of pain. Mishima had fired a single shot from his pistol and it had hit its mark, much to the surprise of everyone including Mishima himself who hadn’t expected the gun to actually fire.  
  
“NRGHHHHH! You...you PIECE OF TRASH! GUARDS, END HIM NOW!” Shadow Kamoshida yelled, and before Mishima could react, one of the guards knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying into the wall, knocking the pistol from his hands.  
  
“Mishima!” Ren yelled, as he struggling to escape the guard’s boot.  
  
“Injury of the King is punishable by death, he should be thankful it’s a quick one.” the guard standing over Ren said, as the other guard stalked over to Mishima with sword raised.  
  
Mishima on the other hand was dazed, his eyes barely in focus.  He did however see the big lumbering mass heading towards him, odds were with intent to kill.  
  
“ _So this is it huh?  This is how I go_ ,” Mishima thought to himself, “ _I’m sorry Amamiya, I’m sorry Morgana, I thought I could protect you guys but look how it has turned out now. Dammit, if only….if only I had had the strength._ ”  
  
**Maybe you do.** **  
** **  
  
  
  
  
  
  
**Mishima gasped as a splitting headache began to form. He clutched at his temples, and began to writhe in agony as the voice continued.  
  
**You have lived your life according to society’s rules, and look where that’s gotten you** **  
** **  
** **Nothing but pain and misery, hopelessness and despair in the pursuit of protecting your good name.** **  
** **  
** **So let us form a contract, one that will help you to undergo a metamorphosis into a person outside of rules, outside of laws.  One that cares not the consequences of defiance.** **  
** **  
** **I am thou,  thou art I.**  
  
**Call my name and show them the darkness you keep locked within!**  
  
Mishima continued to struggle before a white curved mask with a half moon atop the center brow appeared on his face. Standing up shakily, he gripped the mask and ripped it off, the sound of tearing flesh echoing through the chamber.  
  
“Help me, **JEKYLL** !”  
  
Mishima let out a scream and a pillar of light encircled him.  The light unleashed a massive shockwave, which knocked away the guards pinning Ren and Morgana down.  As the light surrounding Mishima disappeared, Ren and Morgana could do nothing but stare in surprise at the sight before them.    
  
  
Mishima’s normal uniform had changed entirely, being replaced by a blue button up shirt and a black suit jacket and slacks. Around his neck was a loose dark grey tie that flapped in the wind generated by the shockwave, and on both of his hands were a pair of dark gloves, with large brass knuckles attached to them. All in all, the ensemble almost made him look like a contract hitman straight out of a movie.

 

But that was nothing compared to the creature that was standing behind him. A creature that looked as if it were two incompatible halves sewn together. The left half had skin as pale as the moon, an eye which contained nothing but the color black, short black hair, a thin frown, and clad in what could only be described as a white lab coat with loose sleeves that were longer than its arm which seemed sewn into the seam between the two halves. The other half of the creature, on the other hand, had dark green skin, a crimson colored iris-less eye, a large toothy grin and silver white hair.  In terms of clothing, it was clad in a dark grey vest and pants. But the most defining feature of the right half was its arm, which was considerably larger than most of its body and looked like it was packed with muscular strength.

  
“Whoa, so Mishima had the potential too…” Ren said, awed by the sight.  
  
“This just got a lot more interesting,” Morgana exclaimed.

“I can feel power coursing through my veins. It’s….it’s extraordinary,” Mishima said as he flexed his fingers before turning to face the guards with a determined look on his face, “Let’s see what it can really do!”  
  
“Impudent whelp, how dare you defy your king!” the head guard said as he and several of the other guards transformed into their Shadow forms: Two Bicorn, an Agathion and an Eligor.  
  
 “Kamoshida doesn’t control me or anyone else-,” Mishima countered as Ren and Morgana rose back up to their feet, “And it’s high time he learn that. Let’s take them down!  Jekyll!”  
  
The Persona’s left half raised its arm and let loose a concentrated blast of electricity from its fingertips which knocked over the Bicorn guard. It left it open to some follow-up punches from Mishima, which sent it flying back.  
  
The Agathion fired off a Zio attack at Mishima in retaliation, who staggered back a bit but stayed standing.  
  
“Let’s help him out, Zorro!” Morgana called out, and the Persona fired a Garu Spell at Agathion, which knocked it out of the sky. Ren immediately followed it up with a few slashes from his knife, which caused the Shadow to disintegrate.  The Bicorn, bringing itself back to its feet, charged at the three alongside the Eligor. While both Ren and Morgana avoided the charges easily, Mishima wasn’t so lucky and he got sent flying back into the nearby wall. He quickly shook off the dazed feeling he had and stood back up, but noticed that the two shadows were preparing for another charge.  Looking at his nearby surroundings, Mishima spotted the pistol he had dropped earlier and rushed to get it.  
  
“Amamiya! Catch!” Mishima yelled out as he threw the pistol to Ren. Ren caught it with ease and nodded, firing off a few shots at the Bicorn which caused it to disintegrate mid-run.  
  
“Time to stop that thing right in its tracks. Jekyll!” Mishima yelled as he summoned the two-sided Persona again. This time, the right half’s fist clenched and flew towards the assailant, knocking said Shadow to the ground with a loud thud.  
  
“We’ve got it right where we want it, time to hit it with everything we’ve got! All-Out Attack!” Morgana called out, and the three lept into action and battered the Eligor with everything they had.  
  
“I...I am a loyal subject...of King Kamoshida. So why...have I lost?” the Eligor moaned as it disintegrated.  
  


* * *

  
  
Mishima let out a series of breaths that were shallow and weak, “Looks like...this took more...out of me...than I thought.”  
  
“Grr...you brats just don’t know when to quit do you?” Shadow Kamoshida growled while still clutching his shoulder.  
  
“Like OMG! What did those assholes do to you Sensei?” they heard a female voice say, as they saw a blonde haired girl clad in only a pair of heels, a purple leopard print bikini and cat ears run out and hugged Shadow Kamoshida.  
  
“W-wow! What a meow-velous girl!” Morgana said, smitten by the sight before her.  
  
“Takamaki?! Why is she here?” Mishima exclaimed, confused at the sight before him.  
  
“I have no idea, we haven’t seen her in our explorations before,” Ren said, equally confused.  
  
“I’m fine Baby Doll, nothing that a rest in my quarters with you can’t fix,” Shadow Kamoshida said as he propped up this Ann’s chin with his hand.  
  
  
“Hey! Get your hands off her and back away!” Ren yelled, pointing the gun at Shadow Kamoshida.  
  
“ _Sigh_ , you all still don’t get it. This is MY castle--a place in which I can do as I please.  Everyone wishes to be loved by me,” Shadow Kamoshida said in a cocky tone, “That is, everyone but you slow-witted thieves.”  
  
“The people in the dungeons might have a few choice words on the subject,” Ren countered with a glare.  
  
“Takamaki, you need to get away from him! Say something!” Mishima cried out.  
  
“She’s not real Mishima, she’s the same as those slaves--a being made from Kamoshida’s cognition of her!” Morgana replied.  
  
  
“Are you jealous Mishima-kun? I’m not surprised since, like, no girl would ever go for a snivelling crybaby like you,” Cognition Ann taunted.  
  
“That’s right, girls prefer a real man,” Shadow Kamoshida continued in the same cocky tone, “But enough of this. Guards, clean up these pests!”  
  
As he said that, several new guards appeared before them.  
  
“We’re outnumbered!” exclaimed Morgana.  
  
“We...we can still... **nrgghh** ,” Mishima tried to say, before nearly collapsing while clutching his side.  
  
“You’re not used to your newly awakened power, we need to retreat for now,” Ren said before throwing down a his last smoke pellet which filled most of the surrounding area.  
  
Ren rushed to Mishima’s side in all the chaos and braced him against his shoulder.  
  
“We’ll expose you for the monster that you are, no matter what! Count on it!” Ren yelled as they ran away.  
  
“Come at me whenever you want, if you fools don’t care about your lives! Haaaaahahahaha!” Shadow Kamoshida yelled after them.

* * *

  
  
Rushing quick through the corridors and avoiding the guard patrols that came after them, Ren and the others managed to get outside to the front courtyard of the castle.  They felt reality shift on them once again, and the castle transformed back into the school and left Ren, Mishima and Morgana standing out in the alleyway near Shujin, panting for breath.  
  
“Damn it, I’m sorry for being so weak.” Mishima apologized.  
  
“It wasn’t your fault, we were caught by surprise.  If it hadn’t been for you, we would’ve been mincemeat for sure.” Ren said with a smile.  
  
“While it was stupid of you to run straight into battle without a plan...you did manage to help us escape in one piece.  So I give my thanks to you too,” Morgana said.  
  
“GAH! You can enter the real world too?!” Mishima exclaimed, not having seen Morgana’s cat form before.  
  
“Of course I can, I just wish I wasn’t stuck in this dumb cat form.” Morgana groused.  
  
“As if this day couldn’t get any weirder,” Mishima said as he slumped down near the wall and sat down on the pavement.  
  
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Ren asked out of concern.  
  
“I’m fine enough I guess.  Just really tired, like I feel like I want to sleep for the entire rest of the day,” Mishima said, rubbing his eyes as if to illustrate the point, “I still can’t believe it though.  That...change. It almost felt unreal somehow. That power, my...Persona I believe you guys called it. And the clothes change too, what was that about?”  
  
“It’s your rebellious will given physical form Mishima, and as for the outfit...when a Persona-user opposes a Palace’s ruler and becomes a threat to them, the change occurs.  It’s to prevent you from being affected by distortions.” Morgana explained, “Your appearance reflects your inner self. It’s the rebel that slumbers within.”  
  
“So my outfit in that other world represents who I want to be?” Mishima said as he nodded in understanding, “I guess that makes some sense. And it was awesome being able to fight like that. But I still have one question...what’ll happen now?  Is...is Kamoshida gonna come after us?”  
  
“Since he didn’t seem to remember the execution attempt, I doubt anything’s gonna come out of this either,” Ren said, looking out nearby to ensure no one was listening, “As for everything else, Morgana and I have been working on it.”  
  
He then turned to Morgana and said, “Do you want to explain or should I?”  
  
Morgana shook her head and said, “We have been working on something, taking down his Palace.”  
  
“You can do that? But how?” Mishima questioned.  
  
“That castle is how Kamoshida views the school.  He doesn’t realize what happens in it, but it’s connected to the depths of his heart. If the castle disappears, it’ll affect Kamoshida in the real world,” Morgana continued.  
  
“And since a Palace is a manifestation of distorted desires, if the castle were to disappear…” Ren started.  
  
“The desires will disappear along with it,” Mishima finished the thought.  
  
“Precisely! You sure are a fast learner Mishima,” Morgana praised.  
  
“But how much would that change things? If we just made him a good person, that wouldn’t exactly fix what he’s already done,” said Mishima.  
  
“Erasing a Palace forces the owner to have a change of heart. You are right that the crimes they’ve committed remain, but without the warped wants to justify them in their mind they’ll crack.  Kamoshida will become unable to bear the weight of the crimes, and he’ll confess them himself!” Morgana explained further, “Plus once the Palace disappears, he’ll forget what we did there as well.”  
  
“So not only will Kamoshida be brought down, there’s no way it can be traced back to us,” Mishima said in surprise, “That’s...that’s absolutely amazing!  How exactly does it work?”  
  
“In order to take down the Palace, we need to steal the treasure locked within its depths.  Before we can though, we need to secure a route to it. Morgana and I have been trying to search for one for the past couple of days, but we hit a roadblock that we haven’t been able to get past.  Some sort of wall with clues related to his personal life,” Ren said.  
  
“I might be able to help with that...if you’re willing to have me come along,” Mishima said, before his eyes turned downward, “I….well you heard what Kamoshida said.  You know about the things I did.”  
  
“Oh...right,” Ren said, noticing that one of the many elephants in the room was finally being brought up, “Look, if this is about the reco-”  
  
“It is.” Mishima said, cutting him off, “Look, Amamiya...I’m really sorry I leaked it.  Being under Kamoshida’s thumb is no excuse, and I wish I could take it back. It’s my fault you’ve had to go through so much stuff up to this point.  It’s my fault the students have mistreated you since you got here. I know there’s nothing I can do to make up for-”  
  
“Mishima, it’s okay. I don’t blame you for it.  You did what you had to do in a bad situation. I can’t blame you for that,” Ren said with a smile, “You don’t have to beat yourself up over it, trust me.”  
  
“Really?” Mishima asked with a bit of hope in his voice.  
  
“Really.” Ren replied.  
  
“Well, then I guess I’m in this for the long haul,” Mishima said with a sigh and a warm look on his face.  
  
“Only if you want to be; like I’ve said already before, I won’t force you to do this with me,” Ren replied.  
  
“Are you kidding?” said Mishima with a scoff. “I’ve had to deal with being put down all my life, and for so long I’ve just been forced to take it and hope that things get better.  Now I finally have the chance to take someone, who’s made my life and others’ lives hell, to task. Let’s take his treasure and bring him down!”  
  
In response, Ren held out his hand and said with a determined smile, “Let’s take him down together, Yuuki.”  
  
“Glad to be along for the ride…Ren,” Yuuki replied, shaking the hand.

* * *

* * *

  
_I am_ **_thou_ ** _, thou art I…_

 _Thou hast acquired a_ **_new_ ** _vow,_

 _It shall_ **_become_ ** _the wings of rebellion_

 _that_ **_breaketh_ ** _thy chains of captivity_

_With the birth of the Moon Persona,_

_I have obtained the winds of_ **_blessing_ ** _that_

 _shall lead to freedom and_ **_new_ ** _power_

 

* * *

* * *

 

 

“Oh, but before we go back in there, we need to figure out a codename for you,” Morgana said.  
  
“Huh? Why’s that?” Yuuki confusedly asked.  
  
“We’ve been using them in the other world because we’re not sure how using real names affects how cognition affects us in the other world.  I go by Joker, Morgana goes by Mona,” Ren explained.  
  
“Hmm...I don’t know what to call myself to be honest,” Yuuki said with a shrug.  
  
“Well, you had a crescent moon on your mask.  So what about something related to that. Like...Crescent or Eclipse or….?” Morgana started to say.  
  
“Luna?” Ren offered.  
  
“Luna...I like the sound of that.  Alright, from now on I’ll go by Luna!,” Yuuki said with determination.  
  
“Glad to hear it!” Ren said, “Well there’s not much else we can do today, so let’s head back to our homes and get some rest and start making plans in the morning.”  
  
“Looking forward to it, see you both tomorrow.” said Mishima and the two parted their separate ways, with Morgana following along in Ren’s bag.  
  
“It’ll be good to have another hand helping us,” Morgana said, “Kid’s got potential.”  
  
Ren nodded in agreement, before he felt some sort of feeling in his head.  It felt as if...something he couldn’t quite place was wrong somehow. He had been feeling that way for a while but for some reason it was in full force today.  Whatever it was, the best Ren could do was push it down and hope whatever was causing it would go away. Or... that he wouldn’t come to regret the decision he had made.

* * *

* * *

 

“Damn volleyball rally, so dumb.” A fair-haired young man said as we walked down the street.  
  
“Hey, any day where that asshole Kamoshida gets put in his place is a great one for me.” another one said.  
  
“That’s because you got it out for the guy Sakamoto, unlike the rest of us who know how things work in school.” the first one replied.  
  
“Hey, the guy’s an asshole and we all know it. Just because you don’t want to do anything about it-”  
  
“That’s exactly the thing, there isn’t anything we can do. If we do anything they’ll shut down the track team for good.”  
  
“We’ve got clout though, the principal won’t shut us down now that we got a chance at Regionals.” Ryuji tried to justify.  
  
“Whatever “clout” you think we’ve got is temporary, we haven’t won the title yet and until we do you better not screw it up for us.” his teammate groused.  
  
“Yeah yeah, I’ll see you later.” Ryuji said as he walked off in the other direction. Once he was alone he let out a big sigh. He kept telling himself that he owed his ma for putting up with his bullshit, that was the only reason why he hadn’t straight up walked into that smug asshole Kamoshida’s office and slugged him in the face. Yet it seemed like no matter how great the track team did, the principal just wouldn’t take notice.  It would be amazing to win the title though, maybe an MVP Award to go along with it. Nothing would make that asshat angrier than watching Ryuji Sakamoto win praise.  
  
“ _Still…”_ Ryuji thought as he sat on a bench and read a few texts.  Some were from his ma asking about how track day prep was coming, she always seemed to be surprised when he volunteered to help run things. A few others were from some fangirls he honestly regretted giving his number to given the content of some of the messages. Ryuji had earned a few fans for his achievements, he was somewhat popular, a lot of people looked up to him to the point where he was the first second year to ever be appointed Captain of one of Shujin’s sports team. His grades weren’t the best, but he always put in the effort to get better. For all intents and purposes, his life couldn’t be better. A bit stressful sure, but still pretty great.  
  
So...why did it all feel so hollow sometimes?  Like his life felt fake and forced, like he was locking himself in a box and just accepting getting kicks in the pursuit of personal glory?  
  
Seeing that delinquent kid beat Kamoshida at his own game, that inspired Ryuji a bit. The new kid was a bit of an enigma, had a criminal record but seemed like an all-around nice guy. When Ryuji had heard the rumors about him he had expected some kind of hard-ass take no prisoners guy, something that while he’d never say out loud….was kinda hoping.  A delinquent disrupting the king of the effin’ castle, it’d be like Christmas come early. So he had been a bit disappointed when he heard that Amamiya had been so...normal for lack of a better term.  
  
And yet in the span of one day, Amamiya had done more damage to Kamoshida than most.  He seemed to wear his disdain for the man on his sleeve and made no attempts to hide it, seemed to get his kicks at making the King angry.  In truth, Ryuji kinda felt jealous of Amamiya. The dude didn’t seem to care what others think, he just did what he thought was right, consequences be damned.  Ryuji wished he could pull something like that off, wished he could rub something in that prick Kamoshida’s face. Not that it would ever happen, it’s not like some sort of circumstance would fall from the sky.  
  
At least that’s what he thought, before he heard a familiar laugh coming down the street.  Ryuji tried to blend in with the surroundings so that he could find out what was going on without getting spotted.  As his eyes adjusted, he saw what could only be described as rather shocking. Walking down the street towards the nearby apartment complex was Kamoshida, and with his arm around...  
  
“Takamaki?!” Ryuji exclaimed as quietly as he could. He had heard rumors that the two were a couple but he had just ignored the rumors. Hearing about it and straight up seeing it was two entirely different things. However upon closer inspection he could clearly see that the only one enjoying it was the asshole, trying to slip a hand down Takamaki’s shirt at every opportunity he could. Takamaki would slap his hand away whenever he tried and yell at him.  
  
Ryuji pulled out his phone and tried to get as close he could so he could take some pics as evidence. As he did he heard a few bits of the conversation  
  
“ _Perverted Asshole…”_ _  
_  
_“...Enjoy ourselves…”_ _  
_ _  
_ _“Only for Shiho’s sake…”_ _  
_ _  
_  
  
“This is effin’ gold, wait till the principal finds out about this. That asshole is finally gonna get what’s coming to him...”

 

* * *

 


	9. A New Vision

The school seemed abuzz with activity just like it had the previous day. Ren figured the track team’s fun run played a big part of it.  Any day where classes were cancelled seemed to be pretty popular around the school, not that he blamed people for enjoying the couple days off.  Truth be told Ren was looking forward to it as well, it was the perfect opportunity to catch up on studying since he had joined the year rather late. Plus it was a good opportunity to sit down and get Yuuki up to speed as well.    
  
“Geh.” Ren grunted when somebody knocked into him. He saw that whoever had run into him had dropped a few papers out of their hands and was rushing to pick them up.  
  
“I’m so sorry, I need to watch out where I’m going.” the girl said.  
  
“It’s no problem at all, here let me help with that.” Ren replied bending down and helping her gather them up.  
  
“Oh, thank you so much…” the girl said before looking at Ren. “Ah! Amamiya-kun, it’s nice to see you again.”  
  
“Hmm?” Ren questioned, trying to remember where he had seen her before it dawned on him, “Oh...uh...you too Suzui-san.”  
  
“Thanks for the help, I’ll see you at the fun run today.” Shiho said, as she ran past him.  
  
“She seems nice.” Ren heard a voice from his bag say.  
  
“Shut it.” Ren replied simply. "Why I have to carry you around, I'll never understand."  
  
"Well if we're gonna be shacking up together, I need to be ready to assist you when you head into the Palace. We can't afford to delay with the raised security we've faced over the past few days. Next time might be our last chance to get the route to the treasure plotted out." Morgana responded with a harumph. "Your antics yesterday cost us a fair bit of time."  
  
"I was trying to save your life, if that puts me in the wrong then maybe I don't want to be right." Ren responded.  
  
"I had it under control!" Morgana yelled back.  
  
" _Hey did you hear something?"_  
  
" _Sounded like a cat's meow_."  
  
  
Ren grimaced and tried to shush Morgana, the day was already off to a fairly bad start. Which considering how draining the previous day had been was not particularly the best.

* * *

 

  
Morning classes seemed to run fast, Ren even managed to answer a question or two much to the amazement of some of his classmates.  Apparently his antics at the volleyball rally had earned a second glance from some of them from what he heard in the rumor mill, something he didn’t really care about but appreciated nonetheless. The one thing he found off about the day was that Yuuki hadn’t seemed to show up. He had asked Kawakami-sensei about it during a break period between classes, apparently he had been excused to help out prep work for the fun run that day. Made some sense, considering that Yuuki was still the class representative.  Eventually classes were let out for lunch, with the teachers confirming that the fun run would take up the rest of the day. Unfortunately for Ren it was made clear that it was mandatory for people to show up, so no studying in the library for him he guessed. He didn’t think he had the energy to participate in the event, but he accepted the fact he’d at least have to show up. Lunch passed by quick, somehow he’d managed to grab some bread before anyone else, and he sat up on the rooftop just munching on it. He had sent a text to Yuuki about where he’d be in case he felt like joining the two of them, but he had responded that he was a bit too busy today but he’d be happy to talk later. The previous day had been trying without a doubt, but Ren was a little disappointed. He hadn’t expected things to change too much, but he had hoped he at least would have someone to hang out with.  
  
“Aw don’t worry about it, I’m sure Bandages will be happy to join us later once he deals with whatever he’s doing.” Morgana said as she munched on the piece of bread Ren had given her.  
  
“It’s Luna now remember, he’s a Phantom Thief just like us.” Ren chastised.  
  
“Yeah yeah, he’s still green behind the ears just like you are.” Morgana replied, continuing to munch.  
  
“This coming from someone who’s never robbed a Palace before either, remember?” Ren shot back.  
  
“Hey, I taught you how to fight and how to utilize your powers, I only follow you because you promised to help me. Also because of whatever allows you to utilize multiple Personas.” Morgana said. “How exactly does that work anyway?”  
  
Ren shrugged, “I’m not even sure myself to be honest.”  
  
“Helpful.” Morgana stated sarcastically, curling up. “Do you think I could nap here for a bit? Come pick me up after your whole sporty thing, maybe?”  
  
Ren picked up his bag and snickered, “Geez you sure are a lazy cat.”  
  
“Grrr I’M NOT A CAT!” Morgana fired back.  
  
“Yeah, yeah.” Ren waved off the aggression. He reached into his bag and pulled out his gym clothes, better to change into his sweats now rather than wait to change in the classroom.

* * *

  
Ren sat at the sidelines and drank some water as he watched people run. Luckily he had been told by Kawakami that nurse had excused him from participating due to what happened yesterday. He felt really tired, better to relax It was a bit boring to be honest. He saw Yuuki running by a few times and saw him wave at him. Ren waved back and just kept watching, planning out what he was going to do for the rest of that day. First off Ren was going to find out where Yuuki had gotten that model gun, if only because having firepower like that would certainly be helpful. Not to mention he had refresh his supplies from the convenience store. They'd need every advantage they could possibly get if this was gonna be their last attempt to secure a route. He'd just have to hope that over the counter pain meds were gonna be enough.

 

“Feeling lazy Amamiya-kun?” Ren heard a voice to the left of him say. He turned and saw that Shiho sitting next to him.

 

“Not exactly…” Ren replied. “What about you?”

 

Ren regretted the words as he saw how injured Shiho looked, with bandages on her left leg and a bandage on her forehead. He watched as Shiho's face went a bit dark before she replied “Practice yesterday was a bit...tough. Coach wasn't a fan of Yuuki quitting the team. I seriously can't believe he did, and more that...he doesn't want to tell me why.”

 

Ren felt himself swallow a bit, he hadn't known Yuuki had gone that far. Then again given the amount of spine he showed yesterday, he guessed that it was a probably a logical conclusion that a big change had happened.  
  
"Well...maybe he just decided that it...wasn't for him anymore." Ren offered weakly.  
  
"Maybe...it would explain how he could stand up to Coach Kamoshida like that." Shiho said quietly.  
  
"I mean...I'm sorry you lost your teammate. For what little those words are worth." Ren responded back.  
  
"No...it's fine." Shiho looked towards the blue haired boy running the race. "When he came to school today, he had such a spring in his step. He looked...happier than I've ever seen him in a long time. He even smiled today, I haven't seen him do that in a long time. Ever since you started here, things have been really different for him."  
  
"Well...I don't know how much of it is me, maybe there's just...something in the spring air." Ren said with a bit of a chuckle.  
  
He had Shiho snicker a bit as well.

“Speaking of which how have you been adjusting to life at Shujin? I heard you made quite the splash at the volleyball rally, some people have been saying you should join the squad.” Shiho said, giving him a small smile.  
  
“ _Yeah, it’ll be a million years before that happens_ .” Ren thought. Out loud he simply replied,  "I thought about it but it didn't really seem my thing.”  
  
“Well, I won’t force you if you don't feel like it.” Shiho told him, and the two sat in awkward silence.

“So umm…” Ren tried to come up with something to talk about but he was drawing a blank.

“You don't have to force yourself to talk if you don't feel like it.” Shiho said.

“It's not that I don't want to, it's just hard to figure out what to talk about sometimes.” Ren said. “Are you sure you're alright, that bruise looks really bad.”

“I'm fine.” Shiho answered monotonously.

Ren let out a sigh “I know what Kamoshida has been doing to you and the others on the Volleyball team.”

He heard Shiho take in a sharp breath. “How do you…did Yuuki..”

“I heard things in the rumor mill, it's hard not to considering I've been a topic of conversation ever since I transferred here.” Ren lied. Technically it was a half truth, but still.

“Oh…” Shiho said uncomfortably, bringing her knees close to her chest. 

“Not to mention it's hard not to notice the people covered in bandages from what I assume is practice for you guys. Why do you put up with it? Surely whatever is there….surely it's not worth it.” Ren questioned.

“Im fine okay!” Shiho said sharply, surprising Ren before her tone softened.“I...I can take it. Volleyball's...the one thing I'm good at anyway.”

   
"Well that can't be true, you seem like a real achiever." said Ren, trying to offer some encouragement.  
  
"My grades are just average, high enough that I can stay on the team but let's say I'm not exactly honor roll material." Shiho joked.  
  
"Well..I'm in the same year and I'm a couple of weeks behind. Come test time, I'm pretty sure I'm screwed myself." Ren joked back.  
  
Shiho let out another snicker, "Well, I'm sure you'll find your way. And worst comes to worst, I'm sure if you, me, Ann and Yuuki put our heads together we'll come out....slightly above average." Shiho replied.  
  
 "Actually about that....what can you tell me about Takamaki-san? I'm in the same class as her but something seems off about her lately." Ren asked.  
  
"About Ann?" Shiho shrugged. "She told me her work had really been riding her lately."  
  
"Work?"  
  
"She's a part-time model for her parent's clothing company as well as a few others, it's a stressful gig but parental pressure and all that." Shiho explained.  
  
"Never really considered that possibility." Ren said, though something stuck out in his mind. Ren considered asking about why if Ann was a model, why wasn't she more popular at school? Sadly he already knew the answer to that question, at least the reasons that didn't have to do with Kamoshida, much as he really didn't want to say it. "What's her relationship with Kamoshida?"  
  
"With Coach? A lot of rumors surround them but...I don't believe them for a second." Shiho tried to wave it off, but Ren could see something about the subject upset her. Probably wasn't a good idea to mention King Kamoshida's sex pet then, Ren kept trying to blot that encounter out of his mind himself. Something was going on between the two of them he could tell, but from casual observation Ren could see it was almost completely one-sided. Ren began to feel the pain in his head once more so he decided to try to make an excuse to leave so he could go to the roof to grab his pain meds.  
  
  
"Well it was nice talking with you Suzui-san." Ren said as he got up to head to the roof to grab Morgana. "By the way, I never got to thank you for your advice on the first day."  
  
"Oh....well you're welcome." Shiho responded. "And...feel free to call me Shiho."

* * *

  
  
"I can't believe you have to keep taking those, surely the pain can't be that bad." Morgana said as Ren took the meds from his backpack.  
  
"It's on-off, lately it's been more on than usual." he replied.  
  
"Have you gone to see a doctor about it?" Yuuki offered.  
  
"Haven't established care in this city yet, don't know if I can. My parents pay for my prescription, but I don't know if they'll cover wellness visits too." Ren replied.  
  
"So...what's the plan?" Morgana said, stretching out.  
  
"Well we've established we've only got one more day to finish our route. I'd like to make sure we're all well prepared before we go in. Maybe tomorrow once I restock on medicine. I'd also like to get to see where you purchased that model gun." Ren replied.  
  
"I got it at this place in Shibuya, place called Untouchables. We can head there right now if you want, I've got nowhere to be." Yuuki responded.  
  
"Can't. My...guardian is making me work a shift today at the place I'm living." Ren replied. "You can take Morgana with you for the medicine shopping, she can tell you what to buy."  
  
"Wait, you're having me take her?" Yuuki asked as Ren handed him the cat.  
  
"Aww don't worry Bandages, we'll make a date of it. Maybe see a movie and grab dinner, but you gotta make sure I'm home by curfew  _Nyehehe_." Morgana joked.  
  
"D-b-shut up! And quit calling me Bandages!" Yuuki fired back. "Where do you live anyway?"  
  
"Yongen-jaya, cafe called Le Blanc." Ren replied.  
  
"That's way out of my way, how am I supposed to get Morgana back to you and what am I supposed to do with the medicine when I get it? My parents won't let me keep a cat at home, and if I bring home drugs that'll just prompt a lot more uncomfortable questions." Yuuki asked.  
  
"It's really close by the station, shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes. In fact...why don't you ask your parents if you can stay over. That'll provide the perfect cover and it'll make sure that you get both the items back to me, plus we can hit Untouchables before school starts if they're open. I can even show you a few techniques I've been working on with Morgana in my spare time." Ren said. "I mean...if your parents are cool with it."  
  
Clearly that was the wrong choice of words as Ren saw Yuuki's face darken. "B-but if they're not I can just always-"  
  
"No it's....it's fine. They...won't care if I stay out." Yuuki replied.  
  
"I-I'm sorr-" Ren started to say before Yuuki waved a hand.  
  
"It's fine, it's not your fault." Yuuki said, before putting Morgana in his knapsack. "You'd better get going then, I'll text when I pick up everything. Make sure you ask permission from your guardian and let me know what he says alright?"

* * *

 

“I’ve told you he’s been up to no good.” Ryuji said, feeling proud of himself. “Now I've got proof!”  
  
“This is...certainly something Sakamoto.” the principal said, nodding his head. “I’ll be looking into this forthwith.”  
  
“So when are you gonna fire that a-” Ryuji started to say before letting out a cough and getting more professional, “I mean, how will you be dealing with Coach Kamoshida?”  
  
“I will be looking into the matter personally and privately.” the principal replied. “In the meantime I will be confiscating your phone as evidence of these proceedings.”  
  
Alarm bells were starting to ring in Ryuji’s head and he went to try to grab his phone but the principal grabbed it before he could.  
  
“Hey!” Ryuji called out. “That's my personal property! Give it back!”

I”I'm afraid I can't do that Sakamoto, I need this for evidence to the school board...for the reasons as to why Ann Takamaki is to be expelled.”

Ryuji felt his blood freeze, “What the hell do you mean?”

“Coach Kamoshida has been lodging complaints that Takamaki has been indulging in stalker behavior and clearly this is evidence that'll substantiate his claims.”

“That's bullshit!” Ryuji called out, “Takamaki ain't stalking that creep, he's clearly blackmailing her into something bad.”

“And do you have proof of that? Besides these photos you took, which prove nothing of the sort.” the principal replied.

“I heard him say that it was for Suzui's sake! That bastard is using Takamaki's friend against her!” Ryuji shouted.

“Or he was using the girl as an ultimatum to get Takamaki to stop his behavior.” the principal simply replied.

“Bullshit!” Ryuji stated, slamming his fist against the desk. “You're letting him get away with it! You've known for a while what he's like and you're just covering his ass!”

“Careful Sakamoto, you've already been warned about your behavior in the past. You're one of Coach Kamoshida's most vocal critics, do you honestly think people will believe your erroneous accusations? Do I need to tell Coach Yoshizaka that the track team is going to deal with some... downsizing?” the principal threatened.

“You can't do this! This has nothing to do with them!” Ryuji yelled back.

“I suggest you leave this office now, before you dig your and the track teams grave any further. Should I call your mother and tell her you're going to be expelled as well, that you lost the track scholarship you're working so hard for?” the principal continued.

This threat got through to him and Ryuji left the room.

Once he was out in the hall he punched the wall “Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!”

He slumped down and held his head in his hands, “What have I done?”

* * *

The train ride to the Shibuya district was a bit awkward as Yuuki had to work overtime to keep his knapsack from being smushed in the crowd with Morgana inside. Once they reached the station, Ren bade farewell to the two and prepared to transfer to the next train back to Yongen-Jaya, when he heard someone in the background loudly talking on the phone.  
  
"You promised I wouldn't have to come over anymore this week! You swore that her place on the regulars would remain intact if I came over last night! I did what you asked!"   
  
  
"Takamaki-san?" Ren said out loud as he saw the blonde looking rather angry.  
  
  
"After what happened last night, you expect me to just come over?! ...This has nothing to do with her! Leave Shiho out of this! ...You wouldn't! ...Listen to me you!" Ren heard Ann saying before it seemed like the call suddenly cut out. He watched as Ann slumped down and started sobbing.  
  
  
"Takamaki-san....are you alright?" Ren asked, reaching out his hand to her.  
  
"Huh?" Ann said as she got up with a start. "Amamiya? What are you doing here? Were...were you just listening to me?!"  
  
She thumped Ren hard on the shoulder and yelled out, "Haven't you ever heard of privacy asshole?!" before taking off in another direction, tears running down her face.  
  
"Wait!" Ren called out, running after her. Luckily she hadn't gotten far, just ended up in the the underground walkway of the station square. Ren ran past the crowd, trying to keep up with her. Also lucky for him, she stood out a fair bit from the crowd. Eventually he found her hunched over near a pillar.  
  
"Takamaki...." Ren tried to say, trying to get her attention. "Ann..."  
  
  
"Stop following me! Just....just leave me alone!" Ann responded, giving him an angry look.  
  
"Look, something is bothering you and I'm concerned about you. I...I just want to talk, that's all." Ren said as serious as he could.  
  
"Why...? Why do you keep worrying about me? Why do you even care..." Ann tried to say, before the sobs overtook her voice once more.  
  
"Let's go somewhere safe, just so you have a chance to calm down. Okay?"

* * *

  
The two had found their way to a local Big Bang Burger and ordered waters. The two sat across from each other at a table, Ann sizing Ren up as she worked to pull herself together.  
  
"So...how much did you hear?" Ann asked after a while.  
  
"Just that you were having an argument with someone and that it involved Suz....that it involved Shiho." Ren answered.  
  
"Well...you're right about that. But it was just an argument, nothing more." Ann said, trying to put the matter down.  
  
"Clearly not if it's got you so worked up." Ren said. "Was it....was it with Kamoshida?"  
  
"How did you-?" Ann started to ask before she caught herself. "Oh right...you've probably heard the rumors about the two of us, haven't you?"  
  
"I...I don't really put much stock into gossip. From what I could tell, you seemed really uncomfortable around him on the first day of school." Ren said. "But...there's more to it than that isn't there?"  
  
  
Ann let out a humorless chuckle. "You're quite observant to have figured that out."  
  
"Taka...Ann, I know it's not my place but...Shiho seemed really worried about you. She said you seemed...stressed out lately, something to do with your work as a model."  
  
"If only that was the truth, I wish it was." Ann said after a while. "There's...something I have to do, every once in a while. It keeps Shiho protected, lets her keep her spot on the regulars...."  
  
  
"Kamoshida's blackmailing you?" Ren asked, though he already knew the answer before Ann even nodded. "I...I don't know what to say..."  
  
"You don't have to say anything...if you want to say you hate me or that you want nothing to do with me, I'm used to it..." Ann said sadly.  
  
"That's not what I meant, what's going on is wrong. It's very wrong. Have you...have you tried telling anyone?"  
  
"Who would I tell? My parents aren't even in the country, the school board and principal are in that bastard's pocket, anything I say will just get me portrayed as some whore and Kamoshida as some paragon of virtue that I seduced with my temptress ways.  That's what he said anyway."  
  
"What about Shiho? She's your friend right? She'd definitely support you." Ren tried to offer.  
  
"NO! She can never find out, if she knew half the things I've done to protect her..."  
  
"She wouldn't want you to suffer in silence for her sake either!"  
  
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT, I HATE MYSELF FOR THE THINGS I'VE DONE! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM SO MUCH!" Ann said as tears began free-flowing. "But Shiho's my best friend...the only thing I have left at that sorry excuse for a school. It's her dream to play volleyball, ever since middle school. She's wanted this for so long. She's done so much for me...and if it means having to suffer so she gets just a sliver of happiness I'll take it."  
  
"But Shiho wouldn't want that...if she knew she'd happily give up on the team."  
  
  
"You don't hear her talk, always saying that Volleyball is the only thing she has." Ann said. "I just...I don't know what to do...I'm sorry for putting this on you. It's not your problem. I don't even know why I'm saying all this to you...it feels almost like I know you but how could that even be? We've barely spoken in class."  
  
  
"Well if it helps you feel better...I'm sorry for butting in..."  
  
  
"It's not your fault. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Ann said as she wiped her eyes. "You really are a weirdo you know, usually people just ignore me. I guess Shiho was right about the rumors about you being exaggerations."  
  
"I get that a fair bit when people take the time to get to know me. On the bright side, at the very least most people are too afraid to bully me unlike my last school. I wouldn't exactly consider isolation a real improvement though."  
  
Ann chuckled a bit at that statement, "Maybe that's why you feel familiar, in a way you're like me. Both isolated and judged by rumors and things out of our control."  
  
The conversation would've continued but all of a sudden Ann's cell phone rang once more.  She let out a big sigh and said, "I wish he'd just forget about me, just forget everything. I guess that's too much to hope for though."  
  
She picked up her bag and began to leave, "Take care of yourself Amamiya-kun."  
  
"Wait Ann." Ren called out before she left. "Things...things will get better, I promise you."  
  
"That's a nice sentiment...but even from you, I just can't bring myself to believe it. Please...promise me you won't tell anyone what I've told you." Ann said, eyes glazing over a bit. "Have a nice night. "  
  
Ren continued sitting there for several minutes after Ann left, a sense of rage building in his body. He hated seeing the young woman look so...broken. Kamoshida needed to be stopped and soon, for everyone's sake. He just hoped it wouldn't be too late.

* * *

 When Ren had finally gotten back to Leblanc, he had gotten an earful from Sojiro about being late. Ren had tried to explain about being held up at school but Sojiro had refused to listen and had just put the young man to work. Suffice it to say, Ren's attempts to allow Sojiro to let Yuuki spend the night had fallen on deaf ears.  Ren had sent a text to Yuuki to drop off the medicine and Morgana some time later and that he wouldn't be allowed to stay. Luckily when Yuuki had shown up to drop off the stuff, he had managed to come up with a convincing excuse of the school assigning him as Ren's tutor to help him catch up over the stuff he had missed given his late start. He had even managed to convince Sojiro to let Ren have a bit of a break to study, where he had made the handoff for the supplies and the cat. Unfortunately he couldn't stay too long as Ren had to continue working and Yuuki didn't want to miss the train back. Ren promised to fill him in later once he finished his work. It was late at night before Sojiro had finally decided to close shop and let Ren head up to his room for the night after a dinner of leftover curry.  
  
Ren headed up to his room and saw Morgana stretched out on his bed. He pulled out his cell phone and started relaying the info to Yuuki, keeping him and Morgana in the loop.  
  
**"So Coach has been using Shiho to get to Ann?"**  
  
"I knew the guy was sick, but this is more disgusting than I thought.  And given what we saw of that girl's cognition in his Palace, lord knows what horrible acts he's forcing her to do." Morgana said, making a sour face.  
  
"Is there any way we could just grab his treasure tomorrow?" Ren asked.  
  
"It's not a good idea unless we've got a route ready to go. Once we go after his Treasure we'll have to face everything he's got to throw at us at once. If we don't have at least some idea of where we need to go, we'll be running around like crazy trying to avoid guard patrols." Morgana answered.  
  
* **She's got a point. I know how bad things sound, but it's better if we do this whole cocked rather than half. Especially if we only have one shot"  
  
  
**"I know...I just...today has messed me up. I knew some of what we were dealing with but this...she just looked so defeated. For some reason it made me angrier than I've been before. Like it became more personal to me for some reason." Ren said.   
  
**"That's fair enough considering what I've seen from you so far. I don't blame you for getting mad. I need to tell Shiho about this."  
  
**"No don't...Ann...begged me not to." Ren said, forcing the words out of his mouth.  
  
**"But this could be great, some extra evidence of what he's done might mean we could take him down without the need for the Palace.** "   
  
"You, Shiho and Ann have all told me that Kamoshida's grip is far reaching, he could try to twist this to his benefit."  
  
**"That's true I guess."  
  
**"Trust me Bandages, this'll work out just fine."  
  
" **GRRR! Quit calling me Bandages you freakin' cat!"  
  
  
**"QUIT CALLING ME A CAT, BANDAGES!" Morgana yelled back.  
  
"Talk to you tomorrow Yuuki. We'll hit the Untouchables shop you talked about before school starts." Ren said.  
  
**"I'll text you the address, talk to you tomorrow Ren.** "  
  
  
  
Ren ended the call and slumped down on the bed. He rubbed his head, which was aching once again, prompting him to take one of his pain meds.  
  
"Hey, not that it's my business but it feels like you've been taking a lot of those. Are you sure you're alright?" Morgana asked, looking concerned.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired is all." Ren said, trying to wave it off.  
  
"Okay then, if you say so. Just...if you have any problems, I'm open to chatting." Morgana said.  
  
"I know, let's just head to bed for now." Ren replied.

* * *

Sleep didn't come easily to Ren, as his dreams were plagued by nightmares of a Black Abyss. He heard disembodied voices all around him yelling things.   
_  
  
__"It's all your fault!"  
  
__"Psychopath!"  
  
__"Delinquent!"  
  
  
_Eventually things began to lighten up a bit, as the voices grew quieter. The darkness didn't abate though, and Ren found himself a bit frightened. New voices began to spring up.  
  
_"Oh my god!"  
  
__"She's going to_ _jump!"  
  
_One voice pierced through over all the others though, the voice of Ann Takamaki  
  
_"No...why...SHIHO!"_  
  
All of a sudden Ren felt a burst of white light envelop him, and he watched as Shiho Suzui came down to Earth off the school's rooftop. As she impacted the ground, Ren woke with a start in a cold sweat.   
  
"Geez what's the matter with you Shaggy Head? You were out like a light, I've been trying to wake you for a while. We were supposed to meet Yuuki at that weapon place, remember?" Morgana said, a bit frightened at the sudden movement.  
  
  
"I need to get to the school." Ren said, rushing to put on his uniform.  
  
"Ren calm down, I know you had a nightmare but..."  
  
"You don't understand, something bad is going to happen I just know it. We need to get there now!" Ren said, pulling his blazer on.  
  
"REN CALM DOWN!" Morgana called out, tackling the young man but not making much headway due to her small stature. "Listen, you need to get a hold of yourself. You had a pretty bad nightmare, probably a result of that late curry and your pain meds."  
  
"But...but it felt so real..." Ren tried to say.  
  
"Well what happened in it, maybe I can help you interpret some meaning."  
  
Ren laid out the details he remembered.  
  
"You saw Suzui committing suicide so you think it's actual going to happen? That's crazy."  
  
"I know something bad is going to happen today, I don't know when but I know it will."  
  
"Maybe you should stay home today, maybe you're feeling sick?"  
  
  
"I'm not, I'm just...I don't know...maybe I am putting too much stock into this." Ren said.  
  
"Ren...it was just a bad dream, take a breath." Morgana replied, and Ren followed it. "Now, we don't have enough time to get to the weapon shop, not if you don't want to be late. Yuuki's been texting you like crazy."  
  
"Shit!" Ren said, grabbing his cell phone. Sure enough there was a fair amount of texts, all yelling at Ren to get up before giving up and buying another pistol like Ren's. Ren shot a quick apology text, as well as a follow-up asking to make sure if whether or not Shiho was doing alright. He had gotten confusion as a reply, with him saying that Shiho seemed just fine when they spoke that morning. Ren packed Morgana into his bag and headed off, ignoring Sojiro's scolding for sleeping in.

* * *

Ren sat at his desk, nervously tapping his foot. He just couldn't concentrate, couldn't get the nightmare out of his head. Another thing that made him a bit nervous was the fact that Ann hadn't shown up for class that day, maybe something happened after she left yesterday. Yuuki kept sending him concerned looks, and he felt Morgana's paw on his leg.   
  
"Just keep calm." she tried to reassure, but it did little to help. Ren felt short on breath, the words of the teacher sounding blurry and unclear.  
  
"AMAMIYA!" Ren heard the teacher yell, causing him to jump a bit.  
  
"Y-yes sir." Ren said shakily.  
  
"This is a very important lecture, now pay attention. This is your only warning."  
  
The rest of the class snickered a bit at him.   
  
"R-right, o-of course sir." Ren said.  
  
"Sir, Amamiya is looking a bit pale. Would it be alright if I escort him to the nurse's office?" Yuuki said, interrupting the lecture.  
  
"Tch...fine. Just be back fast Mishima." the teacher eventually relented. Morgana hopped into Ren's bag and the three left the room.  
  
  
"Is everything alright? You seem really worried." Yuuki asked, looking concerned.  
  
"He had a bad dream last night that really seemed to have gotten to him, he's been like this all morning." Morgana replied from within Ren's bag.  
  
"Well what was it about?" Yuuki asked as a follow-up.  
  
Ren cleared his voice to speak, but was interrupted by a loud shout coming from the classroom  
  
_"Oh my god!"_  
  
_"She's going to jump!"  
  
_Ren felt his stomach drop into his shoes.  
  
"No...no no no no no!" Ren called out, running towards a nearby window where a couple kids were already standing. "It's just like my dream, I knew something bad was going to happen. Shiho's in....trouble...."  
  
Ren stared out the window where he saw the ledge in front of the rooftop fence. It looked exactly as it had in his dream, with only one detail changed.  
  
It wasn't Shiho standing on the ledge...it was Ann.


	10. A Suicide and An Ultimatum

Why was this happening? That was the question Ren had repeatedly asked in his head as he could do nothing but stare at Ann Takamaki standing on a precipice in front of the fence on the rooftop.The scene before him was nothing like his nightmare had told him it would be.

He had seen how upset Takamaki had been yesterday, had seen her almost completely break down in front of him. If he had just chased after her that day, could this have been prevented?    
  
Ren couldn’t continue these ruminations, as he heard a loud voice pierce through the mumbling of the crowds.  
  
“ANN!”  
  
Ren recognized the voice, and it was coming from a nearby open window.  
  
“What are you doing!? Ann!” he heard Shiho.  
  
Ren saw Ann hesitate for a moment, before her head hung low yet again.  
  
“Turn back!  PLEASE!” Shiho continued to plead to her friend.

 

* * *

 

“Shiho...I’m sorry.”  
  
That was the last thing Ann said, unheard by everyone else, as she fell forward and plummeted towards the earth below.

* * *

  
  
The crowd reacted immediately with shocked gasps and all manners of yelling.

_“Holy shit!”_ _  
__  
__“She jumped!”_ _  
__  
__“OH MY GOD!”_  
  
“No...why….ANN!!” Shiho shouted before running off towards the direction of the courtyard.  
  
Ren could do nothing but stand there in shock at what had just occurred, only being pulled out of it when he felt someone’s hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Come on, we should head out there too!” Ren heard Yuuki  say to him, before taking off. Ren shook himself out of his trance like state and followed after him.  
  
Halfway to the courtyard however, Ren felt a splitting pain develop in his head which caused him to stop and clutch it.  Noticing Ren falling behind, Yuuki stopped and looked at him with concern.  
  
“I’m...I’m fine.  Let’s just keep moving,” Ren responded.  Yuuki didn’t quite believe him but there were more pressing issues at hand. Yuuki pulled out his phone and called Emergency Services as the two continued running towards the courtyard. By the time they arrived there was a giant crowd of students crowded around the site of Ann’s body. Some of them even had their phones out and were filming the whole thing.  
  
“ _What the hell is wrong with these people?!_ ” Ren shouted in his mind.  
  
Ren and Yuuki pushed their way through the crowd as best they could until they were near the front, where they saw Shiho on her knees next to Ann. Ann herself looked really banged up, with her leg twisted and a pool of blood around her head.  
  
“Ann! Please Ann, hang in there!” they heard Shiho shout, “Someone call for help! PLEASE!”  
  
As if on cue an ambulance pulled up through the service entrance of the school and into the courtyard. A paramedic team exited the vehicle. rushed their way through the crowd with a stretcher in tow.  
  
“Everyone please make way!” one of the paramedics called out, causing some of the students in the crowd to disperse to make room for them. Placing Ann on the stretcher, one of the medics called out, “We need someone to go with her! Are there any teachers around?”  
  
The teachers, that up to that point had been trying to maintain order, found themselves the center of attention.  
  
“I-I’m not in charge of her class”  
  
“I can’t go”  
  
“We should leave this to Principal Kobayakawa”  
  
“I’ll go!” Shiho shouted over the noise and pushed her way to Ann’s side.  
  
“Alright, come on” the paramedic replied.  
  
“Ann, please be alright!.  Why? Why would you do this?” Shiho said in a nervous frenzy at Ann’s side.  
  
“S...shiho?” she heard a faint voice say  
  
“Ann! Just hang in there, you’re going to be okay.” Shiho exclaimed.  
  
“I’m sorry....I wasn’t….strong enough...to protect you...Kamoshida...he,” Ann tried to say, before passing out.  
  
“What do you mean?! Ann?! ANN!” Shiho called out, trying to rouse her friend again.  
  
“We need to move now!” the paramedic yelled out and Ann was loaded into the back of the ambulance with Shiho going with her. The crowd continued chattering while Ren and Yuuki could do nothing but watch as the sight before them occured.    
  
Both of them had a very clear idea of who was behind this, and neither of them were particularly happy. Out of the corner of Ren’s eye though, he saw someone leaving the crowd and running back inside. He gestured to Yuuki to follow and the two quickly moved to figure out what the suspicious person. Luckily whoever it was was easy to pick out due to the fact they were wearing gym clothes rather than a normal uniform. Unfortunately once the person they were pursuing had headed up the staircase to the second floor, Ren and Yuuki lost sight of him once they ascended the stairs as well.  
  
“Where could he have possibly gone?” Ren said aloud, before they both heard what sounded like shouting.  
  
“That sounds like it’s coming from the PE faculty office.” Yuuki said, and the two ran as fast as they could to the room and burst through the door. They saw Kamoshida sitting at his desk and their guy was standing in front of him with his fists clenched.  
  
“DON’T PLAY DUMB WITH ME! WHAT DID YOU DO TO TAKAMAKI?!” the boy shouted out as he knocked over a nearby chair.  
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kamoshida replied, “How dare you barge in here and accuse me of something with no proof, Sakamoto? And I see Amamiya and Mishima have decided to join this little discussion as well.”  
  
Sakamoto whirled around and saw Ren and Yuuki standing in the doorway and responded, “What the hell are you guys...you know what it doesn’t matter! All that matters to me is that this scumbag gets what’s coming to him!”  
  
“Oh? And what do you plan to do? You seem to enjoy making wild accusations but how can you-” Kamoshida started to say before Ren cut him off.  
  
“I saw Takamaki yesterday and I heard her arguing with somebody over the phone about Suzui’s placement on the regulars,” Ren said.  
  
Yuuki added, “And I can’t help but notice that Shiho hasn’t been called into your office for “coaching” the past week or so.”  
  
“You’re approaching dangerous territory-” Kamoshida tried to say.  
  
“I SAW YOU AND HER HEADING INTO YOUR APARTMENT COMPLEX!” Sakamoto shouted, “And I saw her leaving it an hour later in tears! I told the principal and he threatened to take away my track scholarship and dismantle the team if I went public with it.”  
  
At this point his fists were clenched at his side, “ I messed up, I shouldn’t have backed down. Maybe if I hadn’t then this wouldn’t have happened. But I ain’t keeping quiet anymore! I’ll tell everyone! I’ll show them what a bastard you are!””  
  
Kamoshida let out a long sigh and for a moment Ren thought they had managed to make him back down. That is, of course, until he saw a smile appear on his face.  
  
“I don’t know what you idiots could possibly be talking about.” Kamoshida started, “Suzui hasn’t received any of my extra coaching because unlike you, Mishima, she actually is a decent player.  And to be honest, the squad is better off without you on it. And as for my meeting, Sakamoto, it was an intervention to try to convince Takamaki to stop her compensated dating.”  
  
“Compensated...THAT’S BULLSHIT! Takamaki would never be involved in something like that.”  Yuuki said.  
  
“Oh but it’s true, sadly enough the rumors about her being rather…”loose in her morals” were right.  I tried to protect her and tried to get her to stop but all it did was make the situation worse by creating all those terrible rumors about the two of us,” Kamoshida said in a dismissive tone that none in the room were buying.  
  
, “I tried to have a final intervention in private, but she tried to come onto me so I sent her away after rejecting her advances. Unfortunately somebody-” he continued, with his eyes pointed at Sakamoto, “Got the wrong idea and blew the lid off things.  Takamaki was given a choice of either making a public apology or be exposed, sadly it seems she chose neither. It’s tragic, but unfortunately reality. And from the sounds of things...she won’t exactly be telling her story anytime soon.”  
  
“You...you lying….heartless...SON OF A BITCH!” Sakamoto shouted, before trying to take a swing at Kamoshida, but was stopped by Ren.  
  
“Let me go!” Sakamoto demanded.  
  
“No! Don’t let him get to you. Don’t give him a reason.” Ren exclaimed back at him.  
  
“But still!” Sakamoto responded, wrenching his arm from Ren’s grasp.  
  
“Hmm? You’re actually stopping him? I’m surprised,” Kamoshida said, “Go on, attack me. Oh wait, you care too much about being the star of the track team to get into trouble.Too bad it’s not going to do much good.”  
  
“What the hell are you saying?” Yuuki said, not liking the implications of that statement.  
  
“I’m saying...everyone present in this room is going to be expelled.  I’m reporting the three of you at the next board meeting,” Kamoshida said in an aggressive tone.  
  
The three in question looked shocked at this.  
  
“You can’t make a decision like that!” Yuuki said.  
  
“Oh but I can. Coming in here and threatening a teacher, this school has zero tolerance for that sort of thing,” Kamoshida stated in a matter-of-factly way. "And as for you Amamiya, being the last person to talk to a girl who committed suicide, and considering your record, things especially don't look good for you."  
  
“I’ll expose-” Sakamoto tried to say.  
  
“Who the hell would listen to scum like you people? Who would they believe? A group of delinquents or a upstanding coach like me?” Kamoshida replied, “You’re done for; your futures are mine to take. Now...get out of my sight.”  
  
“Dammit...Dammit!” Sakamoto said under his breath with his fists at his side.  
  
“You...you won’t get away with this,” Yuuki responded, albeit in a tone which betrayed his lack of confidence. Both he and Sakamoto left the room, leaving Ren alone with Kamoshida.  
  
“I already have.” Kamoshida replied.  
  
“Then let me promise you something right now,” Ren stated, “You may think you’ve beaten us down, you may think we’re going to just lay down and take it, but trust me when I say this. You’re going to face the music for what you’ve done.”  
  
“Big talk coming from someone who’s going to wind up in juvie-,” Kamoshida tried to say, while looking towards Ren. Only to be stopped at the glare he was receiving from him, the same glare Ren had given him during the volleyball game. The sheer amount of killing intent that radiated from that glare silenced any further thoughts from him. Satisfied with the fear he saw in Kamoshida’s eyes, Ren headed back out the door.  
  
Ren found Yuuki hunched over, his hand placed firmly against the wall.   
  
"This ends today, we're finding that route and we're stealing that treasure the second we get the chance." Yuuki said through grit teeth.  
  
Ren nodded, tomorrow would be the day that Kamoshida's rule of Shujin ended for good. Whatever the consequences, no matter what happened, Ann would be avenged.


End file.
